SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.—Veronica Moceri scored a team-high 14 points off the bench and a stifling Skidmore defense forced 28 turnovers in a 63-60 women's basketball win over Middlebury College, Saturday afternoon at the Williamson Center.
 
The Thoroughbreds close out the semester at 5-3, while the 3-1 Panthers lose for the first time this season.
 
Moceri broke a 58-58 tie with a clutch three-pointer with 36 seconds to play.  Middlebury cut it back to one, 61-60 on a pair of clutch free throws by Catherine Harris with 22.2 seconds left. The Panthers got the ball back off a turnover, but missed the layup.
 
Kelly Donnelly came away with the rebound for the Thoroughbreds and calmly sank a pair of free throws with 8.7 seconds to play for the 63-60 final.  Sarah Kaufmann missed a deep three attempt for Middlebury at the buzzer.
 
Skidmore scored more than half of their points (32) off Panther turnovers.  Haley English and Moceri had three steals each.   
 
The Thoroughbreds also dominated off the bench, outscoring Middlebury 28-6.
 
Moceri was 4-6 from three-point range (3-4 in the second half).  Donnelly finished with 11 points and nine assists, while Amber Holgate scored 11 points off the bench.  
 
 
Kaufman led the Panthers with 20 points and four assists. Catherine Harrison had 12 points and a game-high 14 rebounds to go along with four assists.

Skidmore is off until a Jan. 2 Liberty League home game against Bard College at 2 p.m.
 
COACH BENNETT: "Tonight our depth showed with non starters coming in and having great games especially Veronica and Amber. Growth can be a hard thing to watch and be a part of during the laborious process but if you engage it and embrace it while working your very hardest it will reward you nicely and we saw that a big tonight.

"Our depth and athleticism are our teams engine. We certainly have some talented players in a lot of places but our team in whole is built around a lot of players playing similar minutes and giving great efforts. When we do the results take care of themselves. A lot of players are used to playing big minutes out of high school and being the go to player, so building a system like ours with ball sharing and sacrificing pieces of your individual game for the team can be tough. Our players have bought in greatly they are now finding their spots and realizing that we are greatest as a sum of our parts.

"There are parts of our team and individual games that need improving and there are parts that have grown exponentially this season and that will continue to grow, but overall we are in a good place.

"The week off from games will give us some time to detail parts of our individual skill sets and maybe add a thing or two to our team game plan but mostly it will provide a lot of time for us to continue the process of growth and continue enjoying the process.

"This was a good win to move forward on going into the break."