GENEVA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's basketball team held off William Smith on Friday evening en route to a 63-61 win road win. The Bombers improve to 12-5 overall with an 8-2 mark in Liberty League play while William Smith falls to 9-8 and 5-5 in conference action.
 
The Bombers were paced by a monster performance from senior Cassidy O'Malley, who scored a season-high 28 points to go with three assists and two steals. Junior Grace Cannon also reached double-figures with 11 points as well as four rebounds. Sophomore Cara Volpe netted seven points and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds in the win.
 
It was clear things were going to be a battle from the start between the local foes, as the difference was never more than five points in the first quarter.
 
The Bombers took just a two-point advantage, twice, during the opening quarter. A layup from Volpe at 6:14 gave IC its second lead of the game before the Herons score five straight a 3-pointer from Stavriana Dimitrakopoulou and a bucket from Lauren Devaney.
 
William Smith would go on to hit four-straight free throws, building up a five-point edge with 1:45 remaining on the clock. The Bombers, however, tied things up at 13 with a layup from Abbi Field and an and-one play from O'Malley with just 53 seconds left.
 
With two seconds remaining in the quarter, Dimitrakopoulou did it again, hitting a shot from distance to push William Smith's advantage back up to three points.
 
The second quarter was more of the same, as it was tied four different times. William Smith held the biggest lead of the quarter – four points – three times throughout the 10 minutes.
 
After a layup from Cannon tied the game at 21 with 6:33 on the clock, the Herons netted four-straight points, taking a 25-21 lead. William Smith was up by four again with 2:54 remaining in the half but the Bombers used two Cannon free throws and a layup from O'Malley to tie the game once again, 29-29.
 
A 3-pointer from William Smith's Kerstin Kelly with just eight seconds left in the quarter extended the Heron's lead to 32-30 at the half.
 
The Herons came out of the break to take a five-point advantage at 8:20 with a Dimitrakopoulou jumper.
 
After exchanging buckets, Ithaca eventually took its biggest lead of the game – eight points – with 3:45 on the clock. Volpe hit a jumper before O'Malley drained a shot from distance, giving IC a 49-41 lead.
 
William Smith opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer from Annaliese Schreder and a layup from Emma Gallagher, closing the gap to 50-48.
 
Back-to-back buckets from KellyAnne O'Reilly and O'Malley extended IC's lead back to six at the 6:29 mark. After several points from the Herons, the Bombers regained a six-point lead on an O'Malley layup at 3:30.
 
With 10 seconds remaining in the game, O'Reilly hit a pair of free throws, giving IC a 63-56 lead. The Herons would not go quietly, scoring five points in seven seconds.
 
Following a William Smith timeout, Dimitrakopoulou hit a jumper and followed it up with a 3-pointer with just 1.8 seconds on the clock, cutting IC's edge to 63-61. Time was on Ithaca's side, however, and the Herons were unable to score the equalizer.
 
Ithaca's defense forced 25 William Smith turnovers and recorded 12 steals on the day.
 
The Bombers are back in action tomorrow with another road game at Skidmore, set for 2 p.m.