ITHACA, N.Y. - In a thrilling Senior Day and final regular season game, the Ithaca College women's basketball team beat Vassar College 80-72 to become Liberty League regular season champions. Camryn Coffey led the charge for the Bombers with 17 points, followed by Grace Cannon with 16 and 13 from Melissa Buxton.
 
Rebounding as an overall team played a huge role in the Bombers win. The team grabbed 63 rebounds to Vassar's 28 and had 44 on defense end of the floor alone. Lindsey Albertelli, Cara Volpe and Cannon all led Ithaca with eight each. Buxton, Coffey and Megan Yawman all added six as well.
 
Buxton drained a three-pointer to draw energy from the crowd within the first minute of play.
After a back-and-forth battle between both teams in the first five minutes of the game, an Alyssa Spady layup put the Bombers up 7-2.
 
Vassar scored on back-to-back three-pointers to gain a brief 8-7 lead right before the six-minute mark. The Brewers' lead was short winded though, with Buxton draining a second three-point shot to put the Bombers' ahead again at 12-8. Emily Dorn and Coffey both scored on layups in addition to a successful trip to the foul line for Cannon to put the Bombers up 18-10 after two Brewer free-throws.
 
Despite an early lead for the Bombers, Vassar scored six straight points in the last 2:30 of the quarter before Natalie Smith scored a layup for Ithaca. The Bombers led 20-18 going into the second quarter after Vassar's Ashley Hansen scored on a jump shot at the first quarter buzzer.
 
After a scoreless two-minute start of the second quarter, Cannon broke the trend scoring the first two layups for the Bombers. Yawman continued the trend after grabbing a steal, driving down the court for a layup and drawing a surge of energy from a packed Ben Light Gymnasium. Vassar responded quickly though, sinking a three-pointer on its next offensive possession, but Ithaca continued to lead 26-21 at the 7:40 mark before Vassar took a timeout.
 
Following the timeout, Cannon scored on a jumper within the minute, but the Brewers responded with another three-point shot. They added two free-throw shots and a layup before Dorn put up a powerful layup and drew a foul to score three points for the Bombers and maintain their lead. However, Vassar sunk a three-pointer to tie the game 31-31 with 4:35 left in the first half.
 
Just over a minute later and after several missed opportunities for both teams, the Brewers made a three-point shot to take a 34-31 lead with just under three-and-a-half minutes on the clock. They scored a second three-pointer before the half ended, and a Cannon steal prevented Vassar from scoring a layup at the buzzer, but it was not enough for the Bombers to take back the lead. Despite Ithaca having 31 rebounds over Vassar's 15 and maintaining the lead for over 70% of the first half, the Brewers ended the second quarter with a 37-31 advantage over Ithaca.
 
Both teams started their first possessions of the third quarter scoreless, but Vassar scored the first points of the second half on a layup in its second drive. The Bombers responded quickly though with a Cannon layup and a successful trip to the foul line for Coffey. Coffey drained a three-pointer at the 8:23 mark and gave the Bombers a brief lead before Vassar scored two back-to-back three-pointers. The Brewers led over the Bombers 45-38 before Ithaca took a timeout just under the seven-minute mark.
 
Volpe restored same energy to the crowd post-timeout after making a jump shot to tighten the Bombers deficit to just five points. Dorn continued the trend for the Bombers scoring three-points for the Bombers after getting followed on a layup again, but Vassar responded with a layup to set the score at 49-43 with just under six minutes left in the third quarter.
 
Dorn went one-for-two at her next trip to the foul line before Hannah Polce snagged a steal for the Bombers in the Brewers next possession. After a few missed scoring opportunities on both ends of the court, Cannon scored on a jumper for the Bombers with 4:18 left in the third quarter. Vassar then scored twice at the free throw line, which was followed by another Cannon jumper and a layup for the Brewers. Vassar continued to lead 54-48 with approximately three-and-a-half minutes on the clock.
 
Polce then scored a three-point shot bringing a massive surge of energy into the gym for the Bombers and putting them within three points of the Brewers. Vassar followed with a jump shot, but Buxton drove to the basket, drew a foul, made the layup and scored at the free throw line to keep the energy up and decrease Vassar's lead to just 56-54 with 2:30 left in the third quarter. Polce put up a jumper after Vassar scored a three-pointer in its next possession at the two minute mark. Both teams went scoreless for the rest of the quarter, giving the Brewers at 59-56 lead going into the final quarter of play.
 
After a steal from Coffey with 9:15 left on the clock, Volpe makes a layup to put the Bombers within just one point of Vassar. Smith added another layup in Ithaca's next offensive run to take back the lead with 8:24 left in the last quarter. Both teams then missed in a series of scoring attempts before Coffey drained a three from an Albertelli offensive rebound and Yawman assist. The Bombers led 63-59 with seven minutes left before Vassar called a timeout.
 
After the timeout, Volpe earned a rebound after Vassar missed a layup and drove down the court for yet another layup. The Brewers scored in their next offensive drive, but it was not enough before Coffey drained her third three-pointer of the day. Vassar scored another layup prior to an Ithaca timeout with a 68-65 lead and four minutes on the clock. Cannon scored twice from the foul line in addition to a Buxton layup with 3:16 on the clock to increase the Bombers' lead to 72-65.
 
After an Ithaca timeout, Vassar scores two free-throws to tighten Ithaca's lead to just 72-67 with almost two minutes left in play. Smith scores one at the foul line for the Bombers after taking another timeout with 1:24 on the clock. Vassar missed a three-point attempt shortly after and called a timeout with 37.8 seconds left. The Brewers sent Coffey to the foul line where she made both shots before calling another timeout with 35.6 seconds remaining.
 
Following the timeout, the Brewers drained a three-pointer to tighten their shortfall to 75-70 before sending Cannon to the foul line. Cannon and Coffey both made free throws in the next 10 seconds to give the Bombers a 79-72 lead.
 
Yawman also got fouled with just nine seconds left to score the final points of the game. The Bombers won with a final score of 80-72, making them the Liberty League regular season champions for the third-straight season.
 
Ithaca looks forward to hosting and competing in the Liberty League tournament this week with first round games beginning Tuesday, February 22. The Bombers will host a semifinals game on Saturday, February 26 from Ben Light Gymnasium.