Box Score PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – A little less than two weeks ago, it seemed the Plattsburgh State women’s basketball team would be on the outside looking in when the SUNYAC playoff picture was announced after losing seven of its previous eight games.
Fortunately for the Cardinals, in the final two weeks of the regular season there was no place like home.
Kathleen Payne scored a game-high 18 points as part of a balanced effort and the Cardinals led nearly wire-to-wire in a 72-60 victory over SUNY Cortland at Memorial Hall on Friday night that ensured Plattsburgh State a spot in the SUNYAC playoffs.
Plattsburgh State (13-11, 9-8 SUNYAC) extended its Memorial Hall winning streak to four games while the playoff hopes for Cortland (10-13, 8-9 SUNYAC) require a win against Potsdam coupled with a SUNY Geneseo victory over Buffalo State who is tied for Plattsburgh for the fifth seed at the moment.
Despite leading for the majority of the game, the Cardinals couldn’t really pull away until the late stages of the contest. After Megan Touhey started things off with a jumper in the painted area, the Cardinals responded with a 10-0 run to take the lead for good.
Brittany Marshall drilled a pair of triple to close out the scoring surge while Misha Green and Dana Nucaro opened it with a pair of layups. The first five field goals the Cardinals scored were assisted on.
After giving up the run, Cortland was able to regain its composure and began to chip away at the Plattsburgh State lead. With 11:57 remaining in the opening stanza, Caysea Cohen pulled up from way downtown and swished a shot that capped a 9-2 run by the Red Dragons that pulled them to within one.
Unwilling to led Cortland regain the lead, Payne and Catherine Cassidy buried triples of their own to bookend a 10-3 Plattsburgh State run over the next three minutes of action, pushing the Cardinals’ lead back to eight, 22-14.
Touhey and her mates were able to whittle the Plattsburgh State advantage down to one once again after the junior hit a jumper with 1:21 to go in the half, but Payne quickly pushed the Plattsburgh State lead back to three with a fast break layup with 39 seconds to go.
Holding a comfortable six-point margin in the deciding frame, the Cardinals allowed Cortland to knot matters at 39 after Erin Wolstenholme connected on a long ball with 13:12 remaining in the stanza, but Devona Paul wouldn’t allow the Red Dragons to come any closer.
The freshman picked up an offensive rebound off of her own miss before getting fouled and hit a pair of free throws that kick-started an 11-4 Plattsburgh State run that culminated with a short jumper from Tequilla Lloyd with 7:54 to go that made things 50-43.
Brooke Reifinger was the main reason the Cardinals went on the big run. The junior netted seven of the 11 points during the spurt including an impressive off-balance bank shot from just inside the free throw line.
Plattsburgh State’s lead increased to as many as 10 before the Red Dragons made one final push. Trailing 62-52, Cohen scored five consecutive markers to pull Cortland within five, 62-57.
After Green knocked down a pair of free throws, Brittany Rando rattled home a big-time triple that made it a four-point ballgame, but the Cardinals hit eight of their final 12 free throws and held Cortland scoreless for the final 1:12 of the game to gut out the victory.
Payne was 7-of-16 from the field including a 3-of-8 mark from downtown and filled up her portion of the stat sheet even further with six rebounds, four steals and assist and a blocked shot.
Reifinger netted 13 while Nucaro and Green added 10 each to round out the primary scorers for the Cardinals.
Marshall finished with six points and a game-high six assists while Cassidy hauled down a game-high eight rebounds to help the Cardinals win the rebounding war 44-33.
Cohen finished with 13 and Wolstenholme added 12 for the Red Dragons who did shoot 39.1 percent (25-of-64 from the field) but made only two of their four free throws.
Aggression made the difference in the game, as the Cardinals made 34 total trips to the charity stripe and came away with 26 points from that distance (76.5 percent).
With a SUNYAC playoff seed sewed up, the Cardinals will now look to close out their regular season on a winning note. Saturday will mark the final regular season game for three Plattsburgh State seniors as the Cardinals host Oswego State. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
