ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Senior Cassidy O'Malley recorded her sixth double-double of the season as the Ithaca College women's basketball team defeated RIT, 72-60. The Bombers are now 14-5 overall with a 10-2 mark in Liberty League play.
 
After scoring just three points in the first quarter, O'Malley went on to net 25 points for IC while also grabbing 11 rebounds and recording four blocks. Junior Grace Cannon narrowly missed a double-double of her own with 14 points and 8 rebounds.
 
Sophomore Melissa Buxton had a career day for the Bombers, scoring 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting, including 3-for-4 from 3-point range.
 
The game started out close in the opening, minutes Ithaca eventually built up a seven-point, 11-4, lead over RIT with 6:03 remaining. The Bombers went on a 9-0 run, starting with a game-tying bucket from Cannon.
 
O'Malley then scored on an and-one play before sophomore Cara Volpe hit a jumper. Cannon bookended the run with a layup to stretch out IC's advantage.
 
The Tigers ultimately went on to score seven-straight points, tying the score up at 11, following a 3-pointer from Brooke Stanley at the 3:24 mark.
 
The Bombers pushed the lead back up to four on two free throws from Cannon and a jumper from Buxton, but RIT's Megan Roy closed out the quarter with a jumper to give IC just a two-point lead.
 
Buxton opened up the second quarter with a shot from distance and O'Malley added a layup, stretching the Bombers' lead to 20-13, just 1:50 in. O'Malley followed that up with back-to-back jumpers, to give Ithaca a nine-point, 24-15 edge.
 
RIT closed the gap to three points with 5:31 on the clock following a Chelsea Steinruck 3-pointer. Junior Megan Yawman answered right back with a shot from behind the arc for IC, but the Tigers came within two points on back-to-back layups from Kaleesha Joseph and Alyssa Juergens.
 
With 1:12 left in the first half, another Juergens' layup brought the difference back down to two points before first-year Emily Dorn hit a pair of free throws to send IC into the break with a slight, 35-31, lead.
 
Ithaca led by as many as seven points in the third quarter, but the Tigers would not go down without a fight.
 
The Bombers led 38-32 with 8:24 on the clock following a 3-pointer from KellyAnne O'Reilly Following back-and-forth action between the teams, the lead was eventually extended to seven on a layup from O'Reilly less than two minutes later.
 
RIT's Stanley – who finished the game with 14 points – drained two-straight 3-pointers, quickly cutting IC's edge to just one point, 41-40. The Tigers then took their first lead since the first quarter on a layup from Megan Roy.
 
The Tigers built up a five-point lead following another 3-pointer from Steinruck and a free throw from Nicole Desimone, but Ithaca closed out the quarter on an 8-0 run to take the lead back.
 
O'Malley was the driving force behind IC's quarter-closing run, scoring the final six points for Ithaca.
 
The Bombers were finally able to create some distance in the fourth quarter, taking the first double-digit lead of the game.
 
Sophomore Lindsey Albertelli started what would prove to be a 7-0 run for Ithaca, hitting a jumper at 8:57. O'Malley then added a bucket for the Bombers before Buxton drained another shot from distance to give IC a 61-51 advantage.
 
Three-pointers from Sabrina Wolfe and Stanley cut IC's lead down to as few as four points with 6:27 remaining, but that is as close as the Tigers would come.
 
In the final 42 seconds, O'Malley netted a layup to boost the gap to double-digits once again, and a pair of free throws from Cannon was the icing on the cake of the 72-60 victory.
 
Ithaca shot 40.6 percent (26-for-64) and 31.3 percent from 3-pointe range (5-for-16). The Bombers also outrebounded the Tigers 47-38 and caused 14 turnovers for 20 points.
 
The Bombers are back in action this weekend with the final road trip of the regular-season. On Friday evening, IC travels to RPI for a 5:30 game before concluding the weekend at Union on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.