CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland built a nine-point lead midway through the fourth quarter and held on down the stretch to defeat visiting Oneonta, 51-47, in SUNYAC women's basketball action.
Cortland improved to 18-3 overall and remains in second place in the league standings with a 13-1 record, one half game behind 13-0 New Paltz. The Red Dragons host New Paltz Saturday at 2 p.m.
Nyia Longford (Medford/Longwood) led Cortland with 18 points, 11 in the second half.
Sarah Tully (East Aurora) recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Julia Siler (Seaford) and
Emily Morano (Olyphant, PA/Mid Valley) each grabbed five rebounds and
Casey Travers (Manorville/Eastport-South Manor) led the team with three assists.
Oneonta (14-6, 9-4 SUNYAC) was led by Olivia Dobrovosky's 19 points. She was 7-for-7 from the foul line and pulled down six rebounds. Meg Nardelli hit four 3-pointers and ended with 14 points and Jenna Harclerode led the team with 14 rebounds.
The first half featured seven ties and 10 lead changes. Cortland took a 26-24 lead on a
Brooke Tillotson (Marathon) layup with 53 seconds left. Nardelli hit a trey with 32 seconds remaining, but Tillotson made a layup just before the halftime buzzer to give the hosts a 28-27 lead.
Cortland never trailed in the second half, but never totally took control either. Cortland's largest lead of the third quarter was seven points at 36-29 on Longford's bucket with 6:05 left, and the Red Dragons led by five entering the fourth after baskets by Tully and Longford in the final 40 seconds of the period. Longford made a 3-pointer 19 seconds into the fourth to push Cortland's lead to eight, and Cortland led 49-40 after a Morano layup with 5:44 remaining.
Oneonta fought back with a Nardelli trey with 5:18 left and baskets by Dobrovosky at the 3:46 and 0:31 marks to cut Cortland's lead to two. At that point, however, Oneonta had not committed a foul during the quarter and was forced to give five straight fouls with less than 22 seconds left to put Cortland in the bonus. Longford made two free throws with less than nine seconds left to give the hosts a 51-47 lead and Oneonta missed a jumper with four seconds left.
Cortland shot 38 percent from the field and was held to 2-of-14 (14 percent) from the 3-point arc. Oneonta ended at 29 percent overall and 5-of-13 (39 percent) from 3-point range. Oneonta connected on 12-of-13 free throws and Cortland was 9-of-12 from the charity stripe.
