Before the season began, expectations were high for the Keuka College women's basketball team as the Storm returned two starters and boasted an exciting incoming freshman class that head coach Dave Sweet hoped would lead Keuka back into the NCAA Division III tournament.

If Keuka, the defending North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) champion, was to contend for another conference crown, much was expected from junior forward Mariah Mouzon (Elmira, NY/Elmira Free Academy).

After a slow start to the season, Mouzon has been a force for the Storm, and on Saturday her career game helped Keuka knock off SUNYIT, the first-place squad in the NEAC's North Division.

Mouzon posted her third double-double in the last four games, scoring a season-best 23 points while snaring a career-high 17 rebounds as Keuka (10-4, 8-2 NEAC) defeated SUNYIT (13-3, 7-1 NEAC) 68-60 inside the Campus Center Gymnasium.

"This is the Mariah we've been waiting to see the entire year," said Katie Marcella, Keuka's interim women's basketball head coach.

"That's the type of player she is, she can be tough in the post when she wants to be, and today she really went after it. She had some great post moves, really worked hard for her rebounds and played an all-around great game for us."

Sophomore Taylor Szwec (Candor, NY/Candor) added 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 points while classmate Danielle Gravel (Sidney, NY/Sidney) had 10 points and freshman Brittany Hadley (Jasper, NY/Jasper-Troupsburg) chipped in with a career-high 13 points and four rebounds for the Storm.

Mouzon, who scored only 15 points with 16 rebounds over Keuka's first four games, has been on fire over its last 10 games. Mouzon has scored 115 points with 79 rebounds over that 10-game stretch, and over her last four games Mouzon is averaging 16.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game for Keuka.

Her previous career-best rebounding total was 15 at Cazenovia on Nov. 23, 2010. This was Mouzon's second-best scoring effort, trailing only her 29-point game against Cazenovia on Jan. 20, 2010.

Facing SUNYIT, Keuka trailed 8-4 in the early going before using a 14-2 run to take an 18-10 lead on a jumper from Hadley with 9:26 left in the first half. SUNYIT answered with a 9-0 run before the Storm went on a 7-0 run of its own to reclaim the lead, 25-19 on a '3' from freshman Amanda Kubitz (Spencerport, NY/E.J. Wilson) with 3:27 left in the half.

Sophomore Jessica Bandrowski (Center Moriches, NY/Center Moriches) scored six of her eight points to spark an 8-0 run that staked Keuka to a 33-21, and the Storm went into halftime up 33-23.

The Storm took its biggest lead of the game, 37-24 on a Gravel jumper two minutes into the second, but the Wildcats chipped away at the lead and only trailed 43-40 with 11:56 left to play.

Keuka hit 10 of 11 free throws over the middle portion of the second half, but the Storm only led 57-54 until Szwec made a lay-up, Bandrowski drilled a jumper and Hadley hit a pair of free throws to put Keuka ahead 63-56 with 2:35 remaining.

Ashley Schmidt hit a jumper to pull SUNYIT within 63-58 before Mouzon hit a big layup with 1:32 remaining. Gravel clinched the win by hitting a pair of free throws with 26 seconds left to close out the scoring.

"That was the most intense I've seen this team play in a while; we were amped up for this game," Marcella said of her Storm, which trails SUNYIT by percentage points in the race to claim the NEAC North division crown.

"SUNYIT being undefeated in conference play was definitely a focal point for us, and playing at their place made the intensity that much greater. We know we need to win out if we want a chance of hosting (the NEAC tournament) and the women found it within themselves to get the big stops on defense. If we play well on the defensive end it lets you play well on the offensive end as well. The emphasis today was to get to the rim and attack the basket, and we did a great job of that."

Mouzon scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds during the second half and was 7-for-10 at the free throw line for the Storm, which shot 22-for-30 at the line (73.3 percent).

Lyndsey Brogano scored 19 points for SUNYIT, but no one else had more than nine points for the Wildcats.

The Storm returns to action with a 2 p.m. tip Sunday afternoon against SUNY Cobleskill. Keuka routed Cobleskill 62-37 at home on Dec. 10, 2011.

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