Sophomore Maggie Byrne (Pearl River/Albertus Magnus) led Cortland with 16 points, eight assists and seven steals. She also grabbed six rebounds. Freshman Jessica Laing (Bloomville/South Kortright) finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds for her sixth “double-double” in seven games. Junior Sara Cavanaugh (Hastings-on-Hudson/Hastings) added 11 points and five rebounds.
Senior Erin Sanvidge (Troy/Catholic Central) led Ithaca (1-5) with 16 points. She made 4-of-7 three-pointers. Senior Sue Kelly (Delmar/Bethlehem) made 3-of-7 treys and finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Cortland shot 61 percent (17-of-28) from the field in the first half, led by as many as 19 points late in the period and took a 42-26 lead into the locker room at halftime. Byrne recorded 11 points, six assists, five rebounds and all seven of her steals in the opening 20 minutes.
Ithaca scored the first eight points of the second half, including two Sanvidge three-pointers, and trailed 42-34 with 14:29 left. Cortland's first points of the scond half came on a Laing put-back with 13:16 remaining on what turned out to be the Red Dragons' only offensive rebound of the game.
Kelly made a trey with 11:55 left, but Byrne hit a three of her own to put the Red Dragons back up by 10 with 11:31 remaining. The Bombers came back with a 6-0 run over the next four minutes, led by Kali Carnovale's (Kersey, PA/St. Mary's Area) five points, and trailed only 47-43 with 7:34 left.
Ithaca, which never led in the game, eventually closed the gap to three and had a potential game-tying three-pointer by Sanvidge go in-and-out with 4:29 left. Cortland extended the lead to five on freshman Brittany Martin's (Allegany/Allegany-Limestone) layup with 4:15 left, but freshman Katherine Bixby (Philadelphia, PA/Germantown Friends) nailed a three-pointer - Ithaca's 10th and final trey - with 2:24 left to pull the Bombers within two points.
Cavanaugh's layup off a Byrne feed with 2:06 left pushed the lead back to four. Following a Kelly layup, Laing was fouled and sank both free throws with 1:33 remaining. Ithaca again responded with 1:17 left on a Jeanine Burke (Raritan, NJ/Bridgewater-Raritan) layup to close within two. She was fouled on the play and missed the free throw, but Kelly secured the offensive rebound.
With a chance to tie the game or take the lead, Ithaca turned the ball over with just under a minute remaining. Cavanaugh's short leaning jumper in the post, again assisted by Byrne, put the Red Dragons ahead 58-54 with 35 seconds left. Kelly's layup with 22 seconds on the clock got Ithaca back within two for a final time. Byrne hit two free throws with 19 seconds left and, following an Ithaca miss, Martin made one free throw with seven seconds left to complete the scoring.