Dec 04, 2018
KEUKA PARK, N.Y. – Shannon McGuire (West Babylon) scored a career-high 30 points, including six 3-pointers, as Cortland defeated host Keuka, 55-48, in a non-league contest. The Red Dragons evened their record at 3-3 with the win.
McGuire, whose previous career best was 13 points in this year's season opener at Hartwick, finished the game 9-of-17 from the floor overall and 6-of-13 from the arc. She also led the Red Dragons with six rebounds to match her career high in that category.
Tanna Mohammed (Huntington/Elwood-John H. Glenn) finished with nine points, all in the second half, and Alaina Lynch (Staten Island/Staten Island Tech) tied her career highs with four assists and five rebounds. Shelby Dugan (Watervliet) contributed five rebounds and three assists and Kristy Vitucci (Deer Park) scored seven points.
Keuka (4-3) was led by Sam Laranjo's 14 points. Riley Record tallied 11 points, Lauren Anten finished with 10 points and eight rebounds, and Brianna Legacy totaled eight points and eight boards. Abby Hess led the Wolves with nine rebounds.
McGuire scored 20 of Cortland's 24 first-half points as the Red Dragons went into halftime with a 24-22 lead. Keuka opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run, the last four points by Anten, to take a 32-26 lead, and the hosts extended their advantage to 37-28 on a Sarah Tyler layup with 2:22 left in the quarter.
Cortland responded by scoring the final eight points of the period on 3-pointers from Vitucci and Mohammed and a Meghan Flanagan (Rochester/Brighton) layup to close within 37-36. The Red Dragons led by one with seven minutes left before scoring six straight points on buckets from Vitucci, McGuire and Mohammed to take a 49-42 lead with 6:01 left.
Keuka got back to within three at 49-46 on a Legacy layup with 3:31 left, but McGuire buried her sixth trey of the night less than 20 seconds later to push the margin to six. The Wolves were back within four on Anten's jumper with 1:10 left. Cortland missed a shot with 39 seconds remaining but Keuka turned the ball over after grabbing the rebound. Vitucci made two free throws with 28 seconds remaining and McGuire hit the second of two foul shot attempts with 17 seconds remaining to seal the win.
Both teams struggled with their shooting touches in the contest. Keuka finished at 33 percent overall and 20 percent (2-of-10) from 3-point distance. Cortland won despite hitting only 27 percent of its shots and 20 percent (8-of-41) from the arc. The Red Dragons held an 18-10 advantage in points off of turnovers as Keuka gave the ball away 19 times compared to Cortland's 12 turnovers. With neither McGuire nor Mohammed starting, Cortland finished with a 44-13 advantage in "bench" scoring.
Cortland returns to SUNYAC play with road games Friday night at Fredonia and Saturday afternoon at Buffalo State.