PLATTSBURGH, NY - In what was a closely contested game throughout, the Cardinals of Plattsburgh fell to the Cardinals of Wesleyan 69-60. Plattsburgh led by as many as three points with over three and a half minutes to go but went scoreless over the final 3:39 as Wesleyan finished the game on a 12-0 run.

Payton Couture (Redford, NY/Saranac) had a season and game-high 20 points to go along with seven boards and Mya Smith (Wappingers Falls, NY/Roy C. Ketcham) added a season-high 16 in the losing effort. For Wesleyan, Tori DaCosta had a double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds and Brooke Guiffre added 17 points and eight rebounds to her team's cause.

Wesleyan shot the ball extremely well, shooting 45.5% from the field and 40% from three, but failed to pull away as Plattsburgh forced them to make 22 turnovers in the game. The Plattsburgh Cards shot just 31% from the field but were 11-14 from the line, helping to keep them in the game against a hot-shooting Wesleyan team. The team also had 27 points off of the Wesleyan turnovers and also had 11 second-chance points, but it was not enough to overcome the efficiency from the field of the opposition. 

Plattsburgh State falls to 2-1 with their first loss of the year and will welcome St. Lawrence to Plattsburgh on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 5:30 p,m, for the team's final non-conference home game of the 2022 portion of the schedule. After falling to Potsdam last night in overtime, Wesleyan rises to 1-1 and will next play Fitchburg St. in the Courtyard by Marriott Classic in Middletown, Connecticut. 

Several times throughout the game, it looked as if Wesleyan would pull away and cruise to a non-conference win. In the first quarter, the game was very close, as each team's offense struggled. Smith was able to close the quarter with a buzzer-beating jumper banked off the glass to move the deficit to just one possession, trailing 14-11 after the first ten minutes. The second period saw Wesleyan take an eight-point lead, nearly at the outset, as three from Olivia Quinn put them up 19-11. Wesleyan was able to hold a multiple possession throughout the quarter and stretched their lead to 15 with a Guiffre three at the 3:03 mark. A Couture three and Hannah Ruberto (Long Island, NY/Sachem East) lay-in with ten seconds left helped move the deficit to just 10 at halftime, but the game looked to have the momentum swung in the favor of Wesleyan. 

With just under six minutes remaining in the third period, Guiffre hit another three-point jump shot to put her team 11 as the Plattsburgh offense continued to stall. However, a Ruberto layup jump-started a 12-0 Plattsburgh run, capped by an Izzy Wilbur lay-in provided the Plattsburgh Cardinals with their first lead of the half. Wesleyan finished the quarter strong to retake a three-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, but Plattsburgh seemingly took the momentum and capitalized early in the fourth period. After a Kortney McCarthy (Peru, NY/Peru) brought the Cardinals back within three, Smith knocked down a huge three to tie the game at 55 with over seven minutes to go. A back-and-forth battle ensued over the next four-plus minutes as Smith put her team up three with 3:39 to, with the Cards leading 60-57. Unfortunately, the Wesleyan offense reignited down the stretch and the Plattsburgh offense stalled. Back-to-back threes from Guiffre and Maggie Lee gave Wesleyan a lead they would not give up as they were able to force several stops down the stretch versus Plattsburgh to earn the hard-fought win. 

Ruberto had another solid game for Plattsburgh on Saturday, contributing nine points and four rebounds on 3-4 shooting from the field and a perfect 3-3 from the line. Kathy Peterson-Ross (Lake Forest, IL/Lake Forest) and Imani Walcott (Albany, NY/Albany) each added eight rebounds in the loss.