SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.—Senior All-American Kelly Donnelly scored a season-high 27 points to lead the Thoroughbreds to a 55-49 women's basketball win over Middlebury College Friday night at the Williamson Center.
 
The Thoroughbreds have won four of their last five to move to 4-3. It was the first loss of the season for the 8-1 Panthers.
 
Haley English was also in double figures for Skidmore with 10 points. She had four assists and seven rebounds. Ari Fustini added eight points, six assists, and two blocks.
 
Sarah Kaufman led Middlebury with 12 points. Betsy Knox scored nine points and had four assists, while Colleen Caveney contributed a game-high 10 rebounds to compliment four points and three assists. Alex Huffman had seven steals, four assists, and five points.
 
Playing without two starters, Skidmore found itself down 11-2 after the first six minutes. The Thoroughbreds adjusted and closed the quarter with a 10-0 run to go up 12-11. Fustini started the run with a deep three with 4:01 left. Donnelly closed it with a three of her own with :32 left.
 
The Thoroughbreds outscored the Panthers 12-4 in the second quarter to extended the lead to nine, 24-15 at the half. Donnelly had seven of the team's 12 points.
 
A Lilly Berg jumper gave Skidmore its biggest lead of the game, 29-18 with 7:44 left in the third. Middlebury cut it to within four 31-27 on a pair of Sarah Kaufman three pointers. The Thoroughbreds kept it a two possession game the rest of the quarter, leading 35-30 to start the fourth.
 
The Panthers staged a fourth quarter comeback, tying the game twice 35-35 on a Caveney three with 7:05 left and then again 37-37 on a Besty Knock layup with 4:44 left. Skidmore met the challenge, regaining the lead on the next possession behind a Lilly Berg layup. The Thoroughbreds eventually pushed it to eight points and then went 6-for-6 from the line over the final 26 seconds for the 55-49 final.
 
Skidmore was 20-48 (.417) from the floor, but only 5-21 (.228) from beyond the arc. Middlebury went 19-55 (.345) from the floor, but struggled from the line, making just four of 11 attempts.

"Tonight's game was a game of will for us," said Skidmore coach Darrenn Bennett.  "Not very many people counted us in the win column with two starters out and a tough team coming in, but our kids did their jobs and they did them with gritty play and a level of resilience that is worthy of headlines.  Our interior defense did an incredible job of really clamping down on the inside and our help defense looked really strong from tip to finish. 

"We pride ourselves on defense and tonight it stood out.  Tay, Lil, Meer and Jessica played a lot of minutes which is outside of their usual roles, but they stepped up big and maintained level of play of both ends.  They made great game adjustments and never looked out of place given the high minutes they played.  We are very proud of them.  

"We had to battle back from an early nine-point deficit, and we were able to do it at a snails pace.  We are usually an uptempo team, but tonight we learned that we are able to slow the pace down and still be successful and our point guards Hale's and Ar did a great job with tempo tonight.  We've been working on it since our last game and they did an excellent job of controlling pace of play.

"This is a very good win vs. a solid 8-1 team that will go on to get  a lot more wins throughout the season and it a great win for our mental which are constantly working on toughening and strengthening.  With finals next week it's a strong feel good victory.  We are starting to learn who and find our identity.  Overall we really liked our energy, effort and strong belief in each other tonight.  If we play every quarter and every game like we did tonight, our journey will end where we want it to."

The Thoroughbreds are off until a Dec. 18 game against Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla.