Box Score Box Score

GENEVA, NY (February 19, 2011) – Fresh off earning their first spot in the Liberty League playoffs in a decade, the Vassar College women's basketball looked to avenge an earlier season loss to William Smith on Saturday afternoon, but the host Herons used a 17-0 first half run to break the game wide open en route to a 84-73 victory at Bristol Gym.

The Brewers conclude the regular season at 14-11, 8-6 and earned the No. 4 seed in next weekend's Liberty League Championships that will be hosted by St.Lawrence. Vassar will play No. 1 seed St. Lawrence. William Smith improved to 15-10, 10-4 and secured the No. 2 seed and a contest against No. 3 seed Union.

William Smith went on a 17-0 run, going from an 11-4 first half deficit to a 21-11 lead in the span of 5:11. The Herons used a trio of 3-pointers, two coming from first year player Sasha Borenstein to put the Brewers into a ten-point deficit. The Herons built a 46-23 lead at halftime and the Brewers never got closer than 11 points in the second half, that being the final score, following a 3-pointer from freshman guard Cydni Matsuoka with 29 seconds remaining in the game.  

Not withstanding Vassar's early 11-4 lead, William Smith controlled the contest throughout. A jumper by senior guard Carolyn Crampton got the Brewers within 67-54 with 8:19 to play in the game, but the offensive minded Herons parlayed a 50 percent shooting afternoon from 3-point distance to keep a sizable lead and balanced that outside shooting performance with a strong inside game that resulted in a 40-14 advantage in points in the paint. Vassar connected on a sizzling 61 percent of its long-range shots (11 of 18), but the Brewers suffered from 37 percent shooting from the floor in the contest.

The Herons got scoring production from eight different players and its bench was a mighty factor, outscoring Vassar 30-0 in a game that was tied only once, 11-11.

Junior guard Brittany Parks scored 27 points and Matsuoka had 26 points, accounting for 53 of Vassar's 73 points. Matsuoka connected on 6 of 10 of her long distance shots. Crampton and freshman forward Hannah Senftleber had eight points each. Parks and Matsuoka had seven rebounds each.

William Smith placed three players in double figures, led by junior forward Kristen Kush with 22 points, 21 from Borenstein and 19 from senior guard Mollie Danahy. Kush led all rebounders with nine.