Junior Sara Cavanaugh (Hastings-on-Hudson/Hastings) led Cortland with 12 points, five assists and six blocked shots and also grabbed seven rebounds. Sophomore Maggie Byrne (Pearl River/Albertus Magnus) finished with 12 points, four assists and five rebounds, senior Kerry Costello (Katonah/John Jay) tallied 10 points and pulled down seven rebounds and freshman Jessica Laing (Bloomville/South Kortright) scored nine points, blocked four shots and grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Sophomore Jen Shaughnessy (LeRoy) paced Keuka with 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting. Freshman Melissa Thurston (Batavia) and junior Erica Golden (Whippleville/Franklin Academy) each scored seven points and junior Abby Brewer (Ovid/South Seneca) led the Storm with 12 rebounds.
Cortland started the game on a 14-0 run, fueled by two of Byrne’s four three-pointers in the game. Keuka’s first basket was a Shaughnessy jumper with 14:02 remaining. The Red Dragons shot 44 percent from the field in the first half compared to just 15 percent for Keuka.
The Storm, however, started the second half on a 9-0 run and were within 35-20 with 16:22 left. Cortland seemed to put the game back out of reach with 10 straight points over the next 2:38, but Keuka responded with a 9-0 run and was back within 45-29 with nine minutes on the clock.
Trailing by 13 with less than six minutes left, the guests made another surge when Brewer hit a layup with 5:32 left and Thurston connected on two shots, including a three-pointer with 2:09 left, to pull the Storm within 48-42. The final three points of the game came on free throws - a Laing connection with 1:16 left and two Costello charity tosses with 48 seconds left.
Keuka shot 34 percent in the second half and finished the game at 25 percent. Cortland was held to 18 percent shooting in the second half and 32 percent for the game. Entering the week, Keuka was ranked second (28.3 percent) and Cortland was ranked eighth (30.9 percent) nationally in Division III in field goal percentage defense.