The Mohawk Valley Women's Basketball team had their biggest victory of the season, and of Coach Emily Durr's young coaching career on Thursday night as they defeated the visiting #5 Onondaga CC Lazers by a score of 76-64. The Hawks improved their record to 7-2 on the season while Onondaga drops to 10-3. This was a closely contested and physical battle throughout. Mohawk Valley was in the lead at the end of each of the four quarters including an 18-11 lead after the first quarter despite a slow start. The Hawks trailed 7-0 for the first few minutes, but once Jane Fahy scored the first points for Mohawk Valley the run began. Sophomore Lyrik' Jackson scored nine of her game-high 32 points in that first quarter. She pushed the momentum further in the Hawks favor as she drained a deep three as the buzzer went off to end the third quarter. Jackson, Jasmine Michaux and Jane Fahy combined for all of the Hawks scoring in the first half, but the other Hawks picked up big contributions in the second half. Michaux would finish with 17 points and Fahy added 10 of her own. Chelsea Dixon would come on strong in the second half scoring all 11 of her points in the final two quarters including a perfect 6-6 from the free-throw line.
The game was closely contested throughout, but the Lazers foul trouble would be the difference in the game as the Hawks capitalized on it by making 23 free throws in the second half. In the fourth quarter Mohawk Valley had a stretch where 15 of their points in a row were from the charity stripe. The Onondaga CC Lazers were certainly deserving of their #5 ranking in the country as they scored from everywhere on the court as shot the ball very well including hitting nine three-pointers. Kaitlyn Karleski hit four of them and led the Lazers with 15 points on the evening.
The Mohawk Valley Hawks will play one more game before the break as they will travel to Cayuga CC this Saturday for a 1:00pm game. Cayuga will enter the contest at 4-4, and the Hawks will look to win their second straight game before the end of semester break.