POTSDAM, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's basketball team edged out Clarkson on Saturday afternoon, 79-77.
 
With the win, the Bombers improve to 10-4 overall with a 5-2 mark in the Liberty League. Clarkson falls to 7-7 overall and 2-5 in conference action.
 
The Bombers were led by a 24-point, six rebound performance from Sophomore Cassidy O'Malley. Of her 24 points, 18 of them came in the first half.
 
Junior Meghan Pickell also reached double-figures, netting 17 points and grabbing five rebounds.
 
Ithaca led for much of the game, starting with four straight points from senior Erin Woop and O'Malley to get things going.
 
Clarkson tied things up twice in the first quarter, at the 7:11 and 6:43 marks before the Bombers scored seven points in a row for the lead.
 
Senior Julie Yacovoni hit a layup and first-year Grace Cannon hit a jumper, which O'Malley followed up with a three-point play.
 
Clarkson's Devin Sorell drained a three-pointer to eventually bring the Bombers' lead to just point but IC built upon its lead to head into the second quarter with a six-point advantage.
 
The second quarter proved to be much of the same back-and-forth action that the first quarter was.
 
A jumper from first-year Abbi Field and bucket from Yacovoni gave the Bombers a 31-23 advantage just over one minute into the game.
 
Clarkson scored seven straight points on a three from Sorell and layups from Madison Shea and Molly Stewart to close the gap to just one point at the 6:39 mark.
 
A layup from senior Allison Spaschak and an and-one play from O'Malley pushed IC's advantage to six points again before the Golden Knights went on to tie things up on a Sorell layup with 3:37 left in the quarter.
 
The teams exchanged baskets for the rest of the second quarter and Clarkson ended it on a high note with a Stewart three.
 
Clarkson took its first lead of the game in the third quarter with 4:15 left. Sorell, who led the all scorers with 30 points, sank a shot from behind the arc to give the Golden Knights a one-point edge.
 
Pickell hit back-to-back layups for IC, giving the Bombers a three-point lead, but Sorell made some crucial shots for Clarkson. She first hit two free throws and followed those up with another three-pointer to give the Golden Knights a one-point lead again.
 
Emma Buonanno pushed the advantage to three points with a jumper, but Allie Tunick hit a big three-pointer with 1:32 left in the third to tie things up again.
 
Sara Jackson followed that up with another shot from behind the arc, which gave the Bombers a 67-64 edge heading into the last 10 minutes.
 
IC built up as much as a nine-point lead midway through the fourth quarter on a Cannon jumper, but Clarkson continued to fight.
 
Stewart netted a three-pointer with just under four minutes left and Hannah Earl hit two free throws to cut the Bombers' lead to four points.
 
With just 17 seconds left to play, Carly Assimon drained a three pointer, cutting IC's lead to 77-74 but Tunick followed that up with a wide-open layup a few seconds later.
 
Clarkson made one final push with just two seconds left, hitting a shot from behind the arc to make it a one-possession game, but time was on IC's side and the clock ran out, giving the Bombers the win.
 
Ithaca shot 32-for-64 for a 50 percent clip on the day.
 
The Bombers are back in action next weekend when they host RPI on Friday at 6 p.m. and Skidmore on Saturday at 2 p.m.