GENESEO, N.Y. – A hot-shooting SUNY Geneseo squad never cooled down and the Plattsburgh State women's basketball team found itself on the wrong end of a 78-60 score against the Knights in Schrader Gymnasium on Friday night.
The rematch of the 2013-14 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) saw the hosts connect on 56.9-percent (29-for-51) of their field goal attempts and amass 20 assists. Meanwhile, the Cardinals sought out offense but couldn't find it in quantities large enough as they put in 31.7-percent (20-for-63) of their shot attempts.
Plattsburgh State slides to 7-8 and 4-4 in SUNYAC games while the Knights maintain their lead in the 10-team conference by rising to 11-4 and 7-1 in league tilts. In the setback, Devona Paul put in a team-high 13 points while Brittany Marshall added 12. The Cardinals were out-rebounded by a 41-28 margin.
Giving the visitors one of just two leads they would possess in the bout, senior Brittany Marshall netted the game's first pair of points with a mid-range jumper 16 seconds in. Following that, Stephanie Linder splashed the first of nine Plattsburgh State long balls to give the road squad a 2-for-3 mark from the field as well as a 5-2 edge.
For the remainder of the opening stanza, though, the Cardinals would pump in just six more field goals while tossing up 28 attempts. The Knights began an 8-0 run with a trio of makes from the charity line before back-to-back layups from Kara Houppert and Biz Reinhardt gave the home team an edge it wouldn't relinquish.
Jax Miller's three-point attempt was true with 13:28 remaining in the half to trim the Cardinals' deficit to 9-8, but the league-leading Knights responded with a 14-4 scoring surge over the following 7:14 to open up their first double-digit advantage of the 40-minute battle.
Four different SUNY Geneseo student-athletes put in points during the run with Dana Cohan collecting five of her game-high 19 markers during the stretch.
A three-point shooting skirmish broke out in the closing minutes of the frame to help Plattsburgh State pull within eight at the halftime break. Marshall, Miller and sophomore Shanielle Chambers each called buckets on a downtown attempt and senior Misha Green added a put-back layup to make matters 31-23 at the half.
Although the home team wasted little time in pushing its edge back to double-digits, Linder and junior Allie Taylor refused to let the Knights venture out too far ahead. The pair combined to net the first eight points of the half for Plattsburgh State
After a Marshall free throw hit made it an eight-point game (40-32) with 14:51 remaining, SUNY Geneseo employed a 6-2 surge with points from three players to take a 46-34 lead. Over the next minute, Green and Devona Paul teamed up to cut the Cardinals' deficit in half.
A rare three-point make by Green followed by an old-fashioned three-point showing by the 6-foot Paul pulled Plattsburgh State within 46-40 with 11:56 remaining. After another close-range bucket from Houppert, Chambers knocked down her second triple of the night and made it a five-point game (48-43).
Reinhardt and Plattsburgh State's Jessica Dolan traded buckets to keep the margin at five markers at the halfway point of the 20-minute period, but the Knights' counterpunch consisted of two treys and an uncontested layup from Shannon McGinnis which upped the lead for the home team to 58-47 with seven minutes left.
Miller stopped the run with another trifecta, but another 8-2 surge by the home team upped their lead to 66-52 with just one-quarter of the deciding half left.
A pair of Paul free throws made it an 11-point game with 4:02 left, but one final 8-2 stretch put things out of reach for the Cardinals.
McGinnis put in 13 points for the Knights and added game-highs in both rebounds (12) and assists (five). McKenna delivered 14 points and Houppert 12 for the home team.
The end of the Cardinals' latest two-game road swing will be in Brockport, N.Y., when Plattsburgh State aims for a SUNYAC split when they cross paths with the Golden Eagles at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.
