POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Led by freshman
Sierra McDermed's 28 points, the Vassar College Women's Basketball team (1-1) picked up its first win over the Nazareth Golden Flyers (0-1) 76-62 on Friday night at the AFC Gym in the second game of The Hochberg Family Tip-Off Tournament.
Nazareth knocked down the first three-pointer of the contest from Kiara Anglin at the 6:46 mark. Freshman
Sierra McDermed (San Antonio, TX) scored shortly after for Vassar's first bucket of the game. The Golden Flyers scored the final nine in the quarter as Vassar struggled from the field, only shooting 1-19. Kim Davis tallied four points in the quarter for Nazareth as the Golden Flyers held a 12-2 lead after one.
Following a Jadyn Abrams layup to push the Nazareth lead to 16-6 with 8:54 left, McDermed brought Vassar back to within four with back to back three-pointers. Brielle Reidinger earned an old-fashioned three-point play to move Nazareth back up to seven-point leaders at the 6:23 mark.
McDermed and Tawney combined for seven more points to cut the deficit to go on a 7-2 run and cut the lead to one at the 3:19 mark of the quarter. A three-pointer from sophomore
Julia Harvey (Delmar, NY) brought the Brewers even at 24.
McDermed continued her monster half with a triple with 1:40 mark of the quarter and gave Vassar its first lead at 27-25. She finished with 17 points in the first half and the Brewers took a 30-27 advantage into the second half.
Nazareth opened the second half with the first bucket on a steal and score from Abrams to trim the lead to one. Harvey drilled a three-pointer in the next possession and senior
Alex Lee (Alexandria, VA) tallied five quick points to give Vassar a 38-33 lead with 7:19 left in the quarter.
Abrams knocked down a jumper for the Golden Flyers to cut the lead to five at 40-35 until Vassar rattled off an 8-0 run on a layup from Harvey and three-pointers from Lee and freshman
Caroline Siekman (Islesboro, ME).
Caley Cornwall buried a three-pointer for Nazareth to cut the Vassar lead to single digits with 1:42 remaining in the quarter. McDermed then knocked down two more triples at the end of the quarter to take a 55-43 lead after three quarters.
McDermed began the fourth quarter with her sixth three-pointer of the game to push the lead to a game-high 15 points. Reidinger's jumper with 5:22 left cut the Vassar lead to 10 until two free throws from Lee and a triple from senior
Eliza Srinivasan (Red Bank, NJ) gave the Brewers a mini 6-0 run with 3:34 left in the quarter.
Freshman
Naiya Kurnik (Fallbrook, CA) knocked down back to back jumpers including one three-pointer and McDermed tallied her final bucket of the night to take a game-high 17 point lead at 76-59 with 19 seconds left as the Brewers earned a 76-62 victory.
McDermed finished the night with 28 points on 10-for-17 shooting as well as 6-11 from three-point range. Lee added 14 points for Vassar and added four assists while Harvey chipped in 12 points. Srinivasan tallied a game-high eight assists and six rebounds.
Abrams was the leading scorer on the night for Hamilton as she finished with 18 points on 7-10 shooting and added seven rebounds. Reidinger tallied 12 points and nine boards and Katie MacLachlan also chipped in six points and nine rebounds.
The Brewers finished the night shooting 36.2-percent from the field but buried 15 triples and shot 42.9-perecetn from behind the arc. The Golden Flyers finished at 41.2-percent from the field but just 4-for-15 from three-point range. Nazareth held the edge by five at the free-throw line while the Brewers converted 23 points off turnovers.
Vassar will return to action on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 against Hamilton, who defeated Swarthmore 62-57 in the first game of the night. Nazareth will face off with Swarthmore at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
