ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's basketball team celebrated the careers of its two seniors
Hannah Polce and
Graycen Dubin along with graduate students
Camryn Coffey and
June Dickson prior to Saturday's regular season finale against No. 20/RV Vassar College. The Brewers ended up coming away with a hard fought 66-59 win as they clinched the top seed in next week's Liberty League Championship tournament with a 23-2 overall record and 17-1 mark in league play. Ithaca, who will be the third seed in the championship tournament, finish the regular season 20-5 and 14-4 against conference foes.
The first quarter saw the Brewers use a 7-0 spurt that was capped off by a Tova Gelb trey as they pushed the advantage to 9-4 just over four minutes into the contest. Vassar would maintain a healthy advantage for most of the quarter until a
Tori Drevna running jumper capped a 9-2 stretch for IC that knotted the score at 15 points apiece. Gelb hit another 3-pointer, but it was countered with a
Hannah Polce driving layup in the closing seconds that saw the score at 18-17 in favor of the Brewers entering the second quarter.
Ithaca stayed hot in the opening minutes of the second and with a
June Dickson trey, IC pulled away by nine points (27-18). Vassar would trail for the remainder of the quarter until the closing seconds when Sierra McDermed connected on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that put the Brewers up 35-34 going into the halftime break. Ithaca shot an even 50 percent from the field and also hit on four 3-pointers during the first half.
The two sides opened the second half trading the lead on multiple occasions before Julia Harvey put Vassar up 42-40 with two makes from the free throw line. The Brewers would get back to the charity stripe during the final minute of the third as Tova Gelb converted on a pair that built the lead to 48-42.
The Brewers played stingy defense during the final 10 minutes of play holding IC to just 3-of-13 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 from downtown. Vassar would lead by as much as seven as IC was unable to muster another comeback attempt and Caroline McDermed sank free throws down the stretch to close out the scoring.
Leading the scoring attack for Ithaca was
June Dickson who had 13, while connecting on three treys.
Camryn Coffey also chipped in 12 points and five rebounds. Tova Gelb netted a game-high 22 points and went 8-of-18 from the floor in the win for Vassar.
Up next, Ithaca will host the No. 6 seeded RIT Tigers in a quarterfinals game on Tuesday, February 20 inside Ben Light Gymnasium. The game time will be added to the Ithaca women's basketball schedule later this weekend.
