Brewers Shutdown Skidmore Thoroughbreds

SARATOGA SPRINGS – The Vassar women’s basketball team held Skidmore to a 29.0 shooting percentage and did not give up the lead once in a dominant 70-48 win at the Williamson Center on Wednesday evening.

With the win, Vassar moves to 6-2 overall and 2-1 in Liberty League play. Skidmore drops to 2-8 and 1-2 in the league.

A balanced Vassar offense featured three players with 10 or more points. Sophie Nick scored a team-high 16 points, while shooting 7-for-10. Nick also had 11 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. Isa Peczuh added 14 and led with four triples made. Jackie Cenan had her third-consecutive double-digit game with 11. Freshman Sarah Gillooly dished out a career-high five assists along while grabbing a career-high four rebounds.

The Brewers set the pace of the game early, going on a 14-0 run in the opening six minutes. Skidmore got on the board at the 4:28 mark, but Ryan DeOrio answered right away behind a fastbreak layup.

After Cenan made a pair of free throws at 3:13, the Brewers went up 18-5. Cenan made a crafty move on the next Skidmore possession and stole the ball from Sydney Tsutsui. The junior then connected for the easy layup to put Vassar up 15. Skidmore went on a 6-1 run to end the quarter, but Vassar still held a 10-point lead.

The second quarter mimicked the first with Vassar outscoring Skidmore 20-9. The Thoroughbreds pulled within as close as seven at 7:21, but Vassar responded with an 8-0 run. Maddie Leong got the run started by notching a fastbreak layup at 6:19, and then Nick and Lexi Mousley tacked on four more points.

After Skidmore’s Taylor Ong split free throws, the score stood at 32-20. Those were the last Thoroughbred points of the half and the Brewers rolled to another 8-0 run. Peczuh hit a triple at 1:06 and then scored the fastbreak layup off a Mousley steal at 0:44. Cenan then hit a buzzer beater to close the half 41-20.

The Brewers led by as many as 27 points in the second half, but started a little slow to open the half. Tsutsui opened with a trey and after a Nick jumper, neither team scored for the next four minutes. A quick Vassar timeout at 3:20 got the squad back on pace with a 9-2 run to end the third. The Brewers continued their momentum into the final stanza with the lead never being less than 22.

As a team, the Brewers had 19 assists while causing 18 Skidmore turnovers. Vassar finished shooting 27-for-61 (44.3 percent) and 5-for-20 (25.0 percent) from downtown. The team had 42 rebounds, with Leong scooping up a career-high seven. DeOrio finished with eight points to go along with four assists. Tsutsui led Skidmore with 19 points and Jessica Centore led the Thoroughbreds with 10 rebounds.

Vassar is now on break until Dec. 31 when it faces Newbury at 3:30 p.m. in the Hampton Inn West Springfield/Naismith Classic in Springfield, MA.