SUNYAC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT 
Friday, February 28 through Saturday, March 1, 2025
Corey Gymnasium – Cortland, NY

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE…
Friday, Feb. 28:
SEMIFINAL 1 – 5:30 pm: #4 CANTON ROOS AT #1 CORTLAND RED DRAGONS
SEMIFINAL 2 – 7:30 pm: #3 OSWEGO LAKERS VS. #2 NEW PALTZ HAWKS
Saturday, Mar. 1:
FINALS – 4:00 pm: SEMIFINAL 1 WINNER VS. SEMIFINAL 2 WINNER

FOLLOW ALONG…
LIVE STATS
VIDEO

TICKET AND SPECTATOR INFORMATION...
-Cash Only 
-All Tickets are $5 (Ages 5 and up)
-SUNYAC students with ID are free 
-Doors open one hour before game time

SEMIFINAL MATCHUP… After clinching the top seed in 2024-25 SUNYAC Women's Basketball Tournament, Cortland will face Canton in the semifinals on Friday evening. The winner of the contest with face off against the winner of the other semifinal featuring New Paltz and Oswego, with the championship game scheduled for 4 p.m. on Saturday.

This will be just the third matchup between Cortland and Canton, as the Roos became full members of the SUNYAC prior to the season. The teams had never met in non-conference action. The Red Dragons are 2-0 against Canton this season. 
  
The Red Dragons are looking for their eighth SUNYAC title, and first under second-year head coach Colleen Ames. Cortland last won the SUNYAC title in 2022-23. Cortland has also extended its streak of reaching the SUNYAC Tournament to 30 consecutive years starting in the 1994-95 season.

LAST TIME WE MET… Jackie Funk (Penfield) hit a driving and spinning layup with four seconds left to lift Cortland to a 51-49 win at Canton in the regular-season finale for both teams.
  
Canton trailed 49-44 with less than four minutes left. Kat McRobbie-Taru hit a layup with 3:06 left to cut the deficit to three, and neither team scored again until Hope Aniceto hit a contested 3-pointer from the left corner with 15 seconds remaining to tie the game.
 
Cortland called timeout and automatically advanced the ball to the frontcourt. Funk took possession and used a screen at the foul line to drive into the lane. She then made a spin move and hit a layup to give Cortland the lead. Canton, with no timeouts left, raced up court and heaved a long 3-pointer that fell short and went out of bounds to give possession back to Cortland with two seconds left. Cortland inbounded the ball and was fouled, but was not in the bonus, and successfully inbounded again to run out the clock.
 
Brooke Tillotson (Marathon) led Cortland with 17 points, 16 in the first half, and grabbed nine rebounds. Funk finished with 11 points, Kayla Campbell (Franklin/Franklin Central) registered seven points and led the team with 10 rebounds and two blocks. Kaeli McAnally (Islip) led the Red Dragons with four assists, Bella Zingoni (Kings Park/Long Island Lutheran) recorded three steals and five rebounds, and Sophie Bissaillon (East Greenbush/Columbia) grabbed six rebounds.
 
Aniceto led the Roos with 14 points, including 4-of-7 shooting from the 3-point arc. Natalie Bartle nearly posted a triple-double, finishing with 12 points, 10 rebounds, eight steals and five assists. Torie Moore totaled seven points, six rebounds and three steals.
 
Cortland led 19-11 after one quarter, but Canton drew within 26-22 at halftime and pushed ahead to a 39-37 lead after three periods. The Roos led by as much as five at 42-37 with 9:18 left before Cortland scored eight straight points, started by 3-pointers from Mariah Huss (Buffalo/Sacred Heart Academy) and Zingoni, to take a 45-42 lead.

THE CORTLAND CAPSULE… Cortland began the season with a road defeat to #3 Scranton, before rattling off seven consecutive victories to pull to 7-1 on the year after a win over Utica. In that stretch, Cortland also won four of those games by 15 or more points, with the smallest margin of victory being five points in a win over Ithaca.
 
A defeat at Rochester stopped the Red Dragons' winning streak, but Cortland then won four more games in a row before a loss on the road at New Paltz gave the Red Dragons an 11-3 record and their first conference defeat.
 
From that point, Cortland has won each of the past 11 contests to improve to 22-3, finishing SUNYAC play with a 17-1 record to claim the regular-season title. Eight of those 11 wins came by 10 or more points, while the margin of victory surpassed 20 points in seven of the wins.
 
Kayla Campbell leads Cortland with 12.0 points per game, while Joleen Lusk (Cherry Valley/Cherry Valley-Springfield) is averaging 10.4 points and Jackie Funk is at 10.3 points per game. Cortland scores an average of 66.9 points per game, shooting 43.4% from the floor and 36.0% from beyond the arc. The 3-point percentage is tops in the conference, and ranks eighth in the nation.
 
The Red Dragons are also holding opponents to 50.7 points per game, the 21st-best mark in the country. One of the major factors to the defensive success is the suffocating defense that holds opposing offenses to 34.1% overall and 26.9% from 3-point range, while forcing an average of 17.4 turnovers per game.
 
HOME SWEET HOME… Cortland is 10-0 in contests at Corey Gymnasium this season, and has won its last 14 home games. The last loss for the Red Dragons at home was to New Paltz on Jan. 23, 2024.
  
IN SINGLE DIGITS… The Cortland defense has held opponents in single digits in a quarter 28 times this season. The best defensive quarter came in a home win over Plattsburgh, when the Red Dragons held the Cardinals to just two points in the entire second quarter. Against Fredonia, Cortland also allowed only two points in the fourth quarter. In a road win over Buffalo State, the Red Dragons held the Bengals under 10 points in all for quarters of the victory.   
 
TEN PLUS… The Red Dragons have had 61 instances of a player scoring 10 or more points in a game this season. Nine different players have reach double digits in a game.   
 
OWNING THE GLASS… Cortland has surpassed 30 rebounds in 21-of-25 games, and has outrebounded the opponent in all but nine contests, thanks to an average of 7.1 rebounds per game from Joleen Lusk and 5.4 rebounds per game by Kayla Campbell. When the Red Dragons win the rebounding battle, they are 16-0 this year.

SUNYAC WEEKLY WINNERS… Cortland has claimed SUNYAC weekly awards three times this season. Joleen Lusk was named the athlete of the week two times, while Kayla Campbell earned the honor once during the season.  
 
THE COMPETITORS… Fourth-seeded Canton advanced to Friday's semifinals with a 61-58 victory over Plattsburgh in the first round on Tuesday. The Roos are 16-10 on the season, and finished conference play with a 10-8 record. Canton ended the regular season with a 7-3 record in the final 10 games of conference play to clinch a playoff berth in its first season in the SUNYAC. 

Canton averages 66.0 points per game, second in the conference to only Cortland. The Roos are lead in scoring by Natalie Bartle, who is leading the conference with an average of 14.7 points per game. Bartle also averages 3.74 steals per game, a mark that is eighth in the nation. Hope Aniceto attempted, and made, the most 3-pointers in the conference this season. Aniceto drained 69-of-197 attempts from distance (35.0%).

New Paltz is seeded second after a 16-9 overall record (15-3 SUNYAC) in the regular season. The Hawks' only three losses in conference play came at the hands of Cortland, Oswego, and Buffalo State.

The Hawks force the most turnovers per game in the conference, at 21.8 per game, and average only 14.0 turnovers per game. Their 7.8 per game turnover margin is tops in the conference and 15th in the country. Julia Sabatino has dished out the 23rd-most assists in the country, at 122 for the year. Meanwhile, Sabatino is one of only 15 players in the nation to record a triple-double this season, accomplished in a home win over Buffalo State.

The Lakers of Oswego are seeded third, and advanced to the semifinals after a 59-54 victory over Oneonta in the first round on Tuesday. Oswego has a 17-9 overall record, and went 13-5 in conference play.  

The Lakers have a tough defense to play against, holding opponents to just 32.7% from the field to lead the conference. Giavanna White-Principio has also recorded 14 double-doubles on the season to lead the conference and rank 15th in the nation. Meanwhile, teammates Macey DeOrdio and Shania Iglesias are attempting and making the most and second most free throws in the conference, respectively.  

SCHEDULES/RESULTS (click team to access online schedules)…

CORTLAND RED DRAGONS: 22-3 (17-1 SUNYAC)
CANTON ROOS: 16-10 (10-8 SUNYAC)

NEW PALTZ HAWKS: 16-9 (15-3 SUNYAC)
OSWEGO LAKERS: 17-9 (13-5 SUNYAC)