Women’s Basketball crushes Houghton for the Empire 8 title
After leading from wire to wire in a dominant 66–52 victory over the Houghton Highlanders, the Geneseo Knights secured their second straight Empire 8 title, as seniors Grace Galgano and Eva Elliot earned honors.
Photo courtesy of Geneseoknights.com
Last Saturday, the Geneseo Knights women’s basketball team destroyed the Houghton Highlanders with a score of 66-52. The win gave them their second straight title in the Empire 8 conference. The tournament Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the Knights was senior Grace Galgano while the Torchbearer Award was given to senior Eva Elliot for the highest cumulative GPA of both teams.
Before moving to the quarterly recap, it is important to know that the Knights were ahead of the Highlanders the entire game. Not only were they consistent in their shots, but they also stayed aggressive on defense. They shot almost perfectly from the free throw line with a .929, while the Highlanders only shot .500. The Knights also had four steals and 45 rebounds compared to their opponents’ embarrassing stats of two steals and 30 rebounds. For field goals and three-pointers, the Knights were almost .500 respectively for both areas. Once again, Houghton could not compete as they shot around .300 from the field and from three-point range. All of these stats put together show how the Knights created such a large lead over their opponent while leaving little room for error.
During the first quarter, the Knights competed with enthusiasm. Sophomore Aliza Whitehead got the ball rolling with a three-pointer. Senior Maggie McGrane then followed up with a jumper. Galgano added fuel to the fire with a layup. By the end of the first, the Knights had a small lead with a score of 17-13.
Geneseo continued to stay offensive during the second quarter. Junior Audrey Hintz was a key player for the Knights as she knocked down two field goals and had a breakaway layup with six seconds left on the clock to give the Knights a five-point lead at the end of the first half. Galgano also kept up an outstanding performance before moving into halftime with another two field goals of her own. At halftime, the score was 30-25.
After the first half, the Knights pressed the pedal to the metal, only increasing the deficit. McGrane added another eight points to the Knights’ side of the scoreboard. She hit two field goals and two more three-pointers. Not only did the Knights keep up on the offensive side, but they were able to stay efficient on the boards by grabbing rebounds and playing strong defense. By the end of the third, the score was sitting at 47-40.
The Knights realized they were only one quarter away from an Empire 8 championship, so for the final nail in the coffin, they increased their lead to 14. The Knights put up 19 points, and the Highlanders only added 12.
Both Galgano and Hintz had 16 points, giving them almost half of the Knights’ total point amount together. They also had 13 field goals, 15 rebounds, and six free throws together. McGrane had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Junior Kristin Suydam added ten more to her season total, bringing her to a grand total of 280 points for the season.
Even though the Knights won the Empire 8 championship, their season is not over. On Monday, the Knights will learn who and where they will be playing in the first round of the NCAA championship. Be sure to follow the Knights, as they even made it to the sweet 16 last year.