CORTLAND, N.Y. - Cortland built a 14-point lead late in the third quarter and the Red Dragons held off Ithaca's fourth-quarter charge to defeat the Bombers, 68-64, at Corey Gymnasium.
 
Cortland evened its record at 2-2 on the season and posted its first victory over the Bombers since Nov. 30, 2010. Ithaca (2-1), which had won its previous nine matchups with Cortland, was coming off a 22-point win over nationally 12th-ranked Scranton this past Wednesday.
 
Casey Travers (Manorville/Eastport-South Manor) and Nyia Longford (Medford/Longwood) led Cortland with 14 points apiece. Travers also recorded five assists, five rebounds, five steals and two blocks. Sarah Tully (East Aurora) scored 12 points and grabbed six boards. She sealed the victory with two free throws with less than 12 seconds remaining.
 
Also for the Red Dragons, Corinne Miedreich (Pearl River) rang up nine points, six rebounds and three steals, Maggie Malone (Cornwall) finished with eight points and seven rebounds, and Julia Siler (Seaford) shared the team lead with Malone with seven boards.
 
Grace Cannon scored 26 points, pulled down 11 rebounds and controlled three steals to lead Ithaca. Megan Yawman added 13 points, six rebounds and five assists, Camryn Coffey scored nine points, and Cara Volpe ended with seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.
 
Cortland led 20-14 after one quarter behind six points each from Travers and Malone, and held a seven-point lead with less than four minutes left in the half before the guests went on a 10-2 run to finish the period and take a 33-32 halftime advantage. Cannon scored 16 points in the opening 20 minutes for the Bombers.
 
The third quarter featured seven lead changes in the first three and a half minutes, the last at 42-40 in favor of Cortland on a Longford 3-pointer. Coffey's layup tied it for Ithaca at the 6:23 mark, but Cortland took the lead at 44-42 on a Travers layup with 5:15 left in the period. That basket started a 14-point streak for the Red Dragons that also featured a Longford trey, a Travers layup, two Miedreich layups and three Siler free throws.
 
Ithaca was down 56-44 after three quarters, but steadily climbed back into the game in the fourth. Cannon hit a layup with 3:40 left to cut Cortland's lead to five, and Natalie Smith's layup at the 2:06 mark made it a 60-57 game.
 
Both teams missed on opportunities over the next 40 seconds - Cortland missing a 3-pointer and two free throws, along with committing a turnover, interspersed with Ithaca missing a 3-pointer and three free throws. Cannon hit the second of two foul shots with 1:23 left to cut the Red Dragons' lead to 60-58. Cortland turned the ball over with 1:08 left, but Ithaca lost the ball just four seconds later.
 
Following a timeout, Longford hit a short jumper from the right side, off a feed from Miedreich, with 41 seconds left to put Cortland up by four. Ithaca missed two foul shots with 34 seconds left, and Shannon McGuire (West Babylon) sank two free throws with 29 seconds left to extend the lead to six.
 
Ithaca, however, didn't go away. Cannon nailed a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left, and after two McGuire free throws, Yawman hit a triple with 13 seconds left to pull the Bombers back within two. Tully, however, was quickly fouled and hit two foul shots with under 12 seconds remaining to finish the scoring.
 
Cortland shot 39 percent from the floor overall and 30 percent (7-of-23) from the 3-point arc. The Red Dragons made 17-of-21 foul shots, including 15-of-18 in the second half. Ithaca shot 34 percent from the field, but only 27 percent in the second half, and the Bombers were 4-of-18 from 3-point range. Ithaca was 8-for-8 from the foul line through three quarters, but made only 6-of-18 charity tosses in the fourth quarter to hinder their comeback bid.
 
Cortland will host Hamilton College in a non-league game on Tuesday at 6 p.m.