ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's basketball team handily defeated St. Lawrence on Friday evening, 76-41.
 
The win pushes the Bombers to 10-3 overall with a 5-1 mark in the Liberty League.
 
Junior Cassidy O'Malley led the way with 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Sophomore Megan Yawman scored a career-high 10 points after hitting three shots from behind the arc. Senior Meghan Mazzella netted nine points and dished out three assists in the win.
 
Despite a close start in the opening minutes of the game, the Bombers slowly started to separate themselves from their competition midway through the first quarter, building up a lead of as many as nine points.
 
Things started tipping in the Bombers favor with 6:42 left, as senior Annie Giannone broke the tie with a 3-pointer, which O'Malley followed up with a jumper less than one minute later.
 
The Saints cut the gap back down to three with an Erin Kumler 3-pointer, but the Bombers went on to score six straight to extend their lead to nine.
 
Mazzella started the run with a fastbreak layup on a pass from Giannon with 3:05 left, before O'Malley added another bucket for IC. An Abbi Field layup with 47 seconds left pushed IC's lead to 16-7.
 
St. Lawrence closed the gap to five points in the opening minutes of the second quarter before the Bombers really started to pull away to a double-digit lead.
 
A Mazzella layup with 6:44 left started what would turn into an 11-0 run for the Bombers in the second quarter.
 
Sophomore Grace Cannon followed that up with a layup for Yawman connected on a free throw with 4:33 left in the half. Meghan Pickell then hit two shots from the line before Cannon and O'Malley put in back-to-back layups, extending Ithaca's lead to 33-16 with 3:10 left.
 
IC outscored St. Lawrence 6-4 in the final three minutes of the half, leading to a 39-20 advantage at the break.
 
Things continued to click for IC in the third quarter, opening up the quarter with seven straight points.
 
Senior Allie Tunick opened up the second half with a 3-pointer less than two minutes in, followed by back-to-back buckets from O'Malley, which gave the Bombers a 26-point advantage.
 
Ithaca limited the Saints to just 10 points in the third quarter, and St. Lawrence was only able to close the gap to 24 points.
 
The Bombers took their biggest lead of the game – 31 points – with 1:35 left in the third, following back-to-back 3-pointers from Yawman and senior Sara Jackson.
 
Following three straight free throws from the Saints, IC once again extended its lead to 31 points (61-30) on a long three from Yawman at the buzzer.
 
IC's biggest run of the fourth quarter – six points – started with a jumper from Field with 7:05 left. Jackson then netted a 3-pointer at the 5:44 mark before first-year Alyssa Spady scored on a layup with just over three minutes left.
 
Defensively, Ithaca forced the Saints to turn over the ball 18 times and also registered 11 steals on the day. The Bombers scored 24 of their points off of turnovers. Additionally, IC limited St. Lawrence's leading scorer, Katie Frederick to just two points on the day, nearly 12 points behind her average.
 
Ithaca is back in action tomorrow with a 2 p.m. contest against Clarkson at Ben Light Gymnasium.