Eliza Howe ‘13 led all scorers with 19 points and Hamilton College never trailed in a 62-50 Liberty League win over St. Lawrence University at St. Lawrence's Burkman Gymnasium on Jan. 30.
Cate Schafer ’10 added 11 points and brought down six rebounds for the Continentals (11-6 overall, 4-3 Liberty). Madie Harlem ’13 tallied a game-high eight rebounds, and added nine points and three assists. Reisa Asimovic ’11 chipped in eight points and four assists. Alex Sowinski ’10 contributed nine points and four assists.
Hamilton jumped out to an early six-point lead at 8-2. Howe hit a layup to put the Continentals on the scoreboard first, and then Sowinski and Howe each sank a shot from behind the arc. The Saints (11-6, 3-4 Liberty) answered with the next six points to tie the score 8-8 with 16:07 left.
A layup by Harlem gave the lead back to the Continentals for good 16 seconds later. Harlem's basket started another 8-2 spurt. The Saints cut their deficit to one at 24-23 after hitting two free throws with 6:48 remaining. However, Hamilton closed out the half with a 10-6 run to go into the break with a 34-29 advantage.
The Continentals continued to rush the Saints backcourt, and increased their lead to eight points after layups by Howe, Harlem and Asimovic in the opening five minutes of the second half. With 13:27 left, Hamilton started a 12-4 run and reached a 13-point lead, its largest of the game. The run began with two free throws by Asimovic, and featured back-to-back layups by Schafer. A layup by Asimovic at the end of the run made the score 52-39 with 7:04 remaining.
The Saints cut their deficit to eight with 2:55 remaining, but a jumper by Schafer and two free throws by Howe accounted for the final 12-point margin. Hamilton shot 41 percent from the field and 43 percent from behind the arc. The Continentals were 12-for-15 at the free-throw line. St. Lawrence shot 18.5 percent from the floor, including 2 of 10 from 3-point range, in the final 20 minutes.
