ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's basketball team held off Clarkson University on Saturday afternoon en route to a 67-53 victory.
 
With the win, the Bombers improve to 11-3 overall with a 6-1 mark in the Liberty League while Clarkson falls to 5-8 overall and 2-5 in conference play.
 
Sophomore Grace Cannon led the way for IC, scoring a career-high 21 points while also pulling down seven rebounds. KellyAnne O'Reilly netted 12 points, including two 3-pointers, while Annie Giannone scored 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds dished out five assists and recorded three steals.
 
It was a slow start on both sides, as neither team scored for more than two minutes into the game. Clarkson's Kati Gotch ended the drought with two free throws at 7:47.
 
The first quarter went to on to be tied up three more times and the biggest lead for either side was just three points. Ithaca extended its lead to three points with 4:05 left as Cassidy O'Malley converted a three-point play to put IC up 7-4.
 
A jumper and two free throws from Clarkson's Hannah Earl tied things up and gave the Golden Knights a one-point lead with 2:14 left. KellyAnne O'Reilly, however, drained a 3-pointer with 1:31 to give Ithaca the lead once again, 10-8.
 
Clarkson's Molly Stewart, who finished with 24 points, ended the first quarter with a 3-pointer to give the Golden Knights an 11-10 lead.
 
The second quarter proved similar to the first, as the score was tied three separate times throughout the 10 minutes.
 
Ithaca opened up the quarter with four straight points on layups from Sara Jackson and Cara Volpe, but a 3-pointer from Stewart evened the score at 14. A layup from Clarkson's Emma Buonanno and Volpe tied the game for the second time with 6:41 left in the half.
 
The game would end up tied up, 24-24, with 1:18 left in the half following a Cannon layup, but Stewart drained another shot from behind the arc for the Golden Knights at the 1:04 mark to break the tie. O'Malley hit a jumper with 39 seconds left to close out the half with IC trailing by one point.
 
Ithaca finally started to gain momentum with 8:15 left in the third, scoring nine straight points. Cannon broke the 30-30 tie with a 3-pointer and followed that up with a steal and free throw. After nearly two minutes of no scoring on either side, Cannon put in a layup for the Bombers, before O'Reilly extended IC's advantage to 39-30 with a 3-pointer at 5:31.
 
Clarkson cut Ithaca's lead down to four points following three buckets from Stewart, but IC went on to score four straight to keep its lead. Sophomore Abbi Field netted two free throws with 2:31 left before hitting another at the 2:11 mark. Jackson ended Ithaca's run with another free throw with 39 seconds left, giving IC a 44-36 edge.
 
Stewart drained yet another 3-pointer with 23 seconds left, before senior Meghan Mazzella hit a layup with seven seconds on the clock, ended the quarter with a slight 46-39 IC advantage.
 
The fourth quarter started out slow on both sides, with no scores for nearly two minutes. Clarkson's Hannah Earl converted a three-point play to cut IC's lead to 46-42.
 
The Golden Knights closed the gap to as few as four points several times before the Bombers built up their first double-digit lead of the game.
 
With 2:44 left, O'Reilly put in a layup, and Giannone hit back-to-back free throws 10 seconds later. Two more free throws from Mazzella at 2:14 put the Bombers up 59-49.
 
Free throws proved to be the difference at the end of the game, as the Golden Knights fouled five times in the final two minutes of play. Giannone accounted for five made free throws in the time, while O'Reilly netted two and Cannon hit one.
 
Turnovers were plentiful, as the Bombers racked up 15 and Clarkson recorded 27.
 
Ithaca is back in action next weekend with road games at RPI on Friday and Skidmore on Saturday. The Bombers return home for a five-game homestand, starting with a 5 p.m. matchup against William Smith on Friday, January 25.