CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland women's basketball team led by as many as 13 points in the first half and held a 33-26 halftime lead, but Geneseo outscored the Red Dragons in the second half, 45-18, on the way to a 71-51 victory in the regular-season finale for both teams.

 

Prior to the game, Cortland honored its three seniors – Beth Bonin (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse), Joka Oyefeso (Staten Island/Port Richmond) and Katie Carey (Greene).

 

Cortland and Geneseo finished tied for second in the SUNYAC with 14-4 league records. Cortland (20-5 overall) will be the second seed in next week's SUNYAC tournament, however, since the Red Dragons and the Knights split two games this season and Cortland was the lone team to defeat top-seeded New Paltz. Geneseo (21-4 overall) will be the third seed and will host sixth-seeded Brockport in Tuesday's quarterfinals, with that winner facing Cortland in the semifinals next Friday on a neutral court at New Paltz.

Nyia Longford (Medford/Longwood) led Cortland with career highs of 21 points and three blocks and also grabbed five rebounds. She scored 16 points in the opening half. Bonin finished with 17 points, three assists and four steals and Shannon McGuire (West Babylon) added nine points and led the team with six rebounds, five assists and a career-high tying six steals.

 

Lindsay Halpin scored all of her team-high 19 points in the second half for the Knights and led the squad with four assists. Sara Ciotti scored 14 points and added six rebounds and Kerrin Montgomery scored nine points and led all players with 14 rebounds.

 

Cortland led 16-12 after one quarter after a Longford 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds and took a 31-18 lead on Longford's jumper with 4:45 remaining in the half. Geneseo, however, was able to close within seven at 33-26 on Hannah Stockman's 3-pointer with 2:37 left in the period, and neither team scored again the rest of the half.

 

Halpin hit two 3-pointers in the first minute of the third quarter to cut Cortland's lead to two, and the Knights knotted the game at 35-35 on Abigail Duvivier's layup with 5:54 remaining. Cortland took its final lead on a Bonin jumper 21 seconds later, but Montgomery's layup tied the game with 4:44 left in the period and treys by Stockman and Halpin gave Geneseo a 43-37 lead at the 2:52 mark. Cortland trailed by seven entering the fourth, and was still within eight with six minutes left before Geneseo scored seven straight points over the next three minutes to put the game away.

 

Geneseo shot 48 percent from the field in the second half and 43 percent for the game. Cortland shot 38 percent in the first half but only 21 percent in the second half to finish at just under 30 percent.