SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A season-best shooting night for the Skidmore College women's basketball team led to a deciding 78-56 triumph over William Smith, in Liberty League action at the Williamson Sports Center on Friday.
 
The Thoroughbreds (13-9, 11-4 Liberty League) have won seven of the last eight games, setting up a showdown with RIT on Saturday for first place in the league standings. William Smith (12-10, 6-9 Liberty League) falls to seventh place in the league standings, one game out of the final playoff spot.
 
Skidmore got a season-best effort from its offense in the victory, shooting 50 percent from the field. The Thoroughbreds also tallied season-highs with 78 points, 30 field goals made, and eight 3-pointers.
 
Four of Skidmore's starters scored in double figures. Kelly Donnelly led the way with 21 points and eight rebounds, adding two steals. Caite Opfer added 15 points and five rebounds. Haley English had arguably her best game of the season with 15 points, seven assists, four rebounds, and four steals.  Ari Fustini was solid from beyond the arc, added 12 points on four made 3-pointers. Veronica Moceri added five points, six assists, and five rebounds.

"Tonight was the best shooting night I've seen us have," said head coach Darren Bennett. "Our players and staff have been working on our shooting tirelessly over the last three weeks and tonight it paid off. It was exciting to watch it happen tonight for our entire team.  William Smith is a really solid team as we know from the first time we played them and from their strong play in conference. Overall we had a lot of kids show up tonight on both ends of the floor.  Our emphasis was ball control and strings of solid offensive possessions on one end with solid defensive possessions on the other end in strings.  We've been able to have some good possessions, two or three in a row, but successful teams have 6, 7 or 8 good possessions in a row on offense especially and that's what we've been talking about, working on and really trying to execute and tonight it showed."
 
Mia Morrison tallied a 15-point, 12-assist double-double, scoring her 1,000^th career point in the process. Juliana Gamboa added 14 points and three rebounds.
 
The Thoroughbreds led for the whole game, starting things off on the defensive end by holding William Smith without a field goal for the first 5:22 of the contest, jumping out to an 11-1 lead. The Herons fought back to reduce the deficit to three, at 15-12, before an aggressive finish in the paint by English began a 6-0 run to end the quarter, capped off by a Jessica Centore layup with six seconds left.
 
The Thoroughbreds picked up where they left off in the first quarter, going on an 8-0 run to stretch its lead to 17, at 29-12. After a pair of buckets by the Herons, Skidmore kept its foot on the gas with a Fustini 3-pointer, pushing the lead to as many as 25 points in the opening half. William Smith hit a pair of 3-pointers to end the scoring in the first half, as Skidmore held a 43-24 lead at the half.
 
Skidmore held strong in the second half, with William Smith bringing the margin no closer than 18 points, pushing its lead to its highest at 30. The Thoroughbreds would outscore the Herons 21-19 in the third and 14-13 in the final quarter to secure the victory.
 
Skidmore held William Smith to 31.7 percent shooting from the field in the game, with the Herons scoring just 14 points in the paint. The Thoroughbreds scored 21 points off William Smith turnovers and won the rebounding battle, 39-35. The 35 rebounds were also a season-low for a Skidmore opponent.

"We have some very, very tough games ahead starting tomorrow versus an offensive juggernaut in RIT," said Bennett.  "We hope that we can find continued success on defense and that our offense continues to click.  A lot of players are contributing and doing good things, we are able to spread the offensive load and as long as we continue hitting shots, the entire floor gets bigger and things become a little easier or less rugged and that's a good thing. We are looking forward to an excited Senior Day tomorrow and Big Green Scream."
 
Skidmore will battle RIT on Saturday at 2 p.m., in its annual "Big Green Scream" event. Skidmore will honor its senior class before the contest, guards Fustini and Moceri, and forwards Opfer and Donnelly.