ITHACA, N.Y. – The top-seeded Ithaca College women's basketball team handily defeated William Smith, 77-56, in Saturday's semifinal to advance to Sunday's championship game.
 
The Bombers will look to capture their first-ever Liberty League title since joining the league in 2017 when they face off with RIT at 12 p.m.
 
Junior Cassidy O'Malley poured in a season-high 28 (10-for-15) and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Ithaca past the Herons. Sophomore Grace Cannon notched 12 points and six rebounds while senior Allie Tunick netted 10 points on 2-for-4 from distance. Senior Annie Giannone scored nine points and dished out six assists.
 
The first half was a close battle between the local rivals, but IC slowly started to pull away down the stretch to create some distance.
 
The Bombers led by just one point at the end of the first quarter, and the score was tied three different times in the first ten minutes.
 
After nearly 1:30 of scoreless play, William Smith's Stavriana Dimitrakopoulou put in the first bucket of the game, and O'Malley answered back ten seconds later for the first tie of the game.
 
Ithaca went on to build up a 14-9 advantage with 2:35 remaining, but a layup from Mia Morrison and a jumper from Emma Gallagher in the final 24 seconds left IC with just a one-point lead heading into the second quarter.
 
The Bombers started to gain momentum in the second quarter, scoring six straight to take a 20-15 lead. KellyAnne O'Reilly started things off with a layup at 8:46, followed by an Annie Giannone jumper and two O'Malley free throws.
 
With 3:20 remaining in the half, a jumper from O'Malley pushed IC's advantage to eight points – 24-16 – for its biggest lead of the game at that point.
 
Another bucket from Giannone and two free throws from Tunick bumped the gap up to 10 points with 1:20 left on the clock. Giannone put in another shot with five seconds left, sending IC into the break with a 30-22 lead.
 
The Bombers carried that momentum into the third quarter, opening up with an 8-0 run.
 
Giannone drained a shot from distance just 15 seconds in, followed by a Tunick 3-pointer a minute later. Grace Cannon hit a layup at 7:57 to extend Ithaca's lead to 16 points, 38-22.
 
William Smith answered with seven straight points of their own, as Morrison drilled a shot from behind the arc and a layup, while Olivia Parisi hit a pair of free throws with 6:04 remaining.
 
O'Malley continued to dominate her defenders, as she scored eight unanswered points, starting with a jumper with 4:57 remaining. She went on to hit another jumper and two layups to push IC's lead to 19 points with 3:08 left in the third.
 
The Bombers continued to maintain a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, eventually extended it to more than 20 points midway through.
 
A layup from Cannon pushed the Bombers past the 20-point threshold. O'Reilly drained a 3-pointer with 4:36 remaining and O'Malley netted two free throws, giving IC a 71-46 lead with 4:10 remaining.
 
Ithaca held off William Smith for the final four minutes, keeping the gap to at least 19 points.
 
The Bombers shot 60 percent from the floor on 18-30 shooting in the second half. They also shot 55.6 percent from three in the second half, hitting five of nine attempts.
 
Morrison finished with 18 points for William Smith while Dimitrakopoulou had 15.
 
Ithaca vs. RIT
 
The Bombers will host No. 2 RIT tomorrow at 12 p.m. in the Liberty League final. Ithaca split with the Tigers this season, winning the first match up, 77-52 before falling in the second, 64-52.
 
RIT is coming off a 70-62 victory over Vassar in Saturday's second semifinal. Cori Okada led with 25 points, while Sabrina Wolfe had 17 and both Alyssa Juergens and Tara Lynch scored 10.