After not losing at home all season long, the women’s basketball team finally faltered Saturday at in front of the Bomber faithful in Ben Light Gymnasium. The St. John Fisher College Cardinals came into town and shut down Ithaca with a 56–45 win.

With junior guard Katherine Bixby hobbled by an ankle injury, the Bomber offense was lacking, shooting only 31.7 percent from the field. Junior guard Lindsay Brown and senior forward Tracy Bradley did both get in double figures with 15 and 11 points respectively. Bradley recorded her sixth career double-double in the process with 11 rebounds.

Yet, the Bombers could not score when they needed to make a run. Senior guard Megan Rumschik said it was a combination of factors that led to the defeat.

“Toughness was a big problem,” she said. “We let them push us around. We did not play well together as a team either.”

Although hobbled, Bixby said she noticed the lack of team play on offense as well.

“There was a lot of one on one,” she said. “We need to get back to working together again.”

Although it was a tough loss, the Bombers were given some good news on Sunday, as Utica College also lost its third conference game of the season to Stevens Institute of Technology. That places Ithaca in the top spot with two games to play for each team.

However, Bixby said the Blue and Gold need to get their offense back so they will not need to worry about any opponents.

“We need to gel and get some game motivation,” Bixby said. “It’s time to start getting back to the way we were playing when we were winning games.”

The team will start to return to form at practice Monday. Rumschik said improving on the court will require the team to stay positive and not focus on the loss.

“We don’t want to let it affect us too much,” she said. “We should not dwell on it, all we have to do is win out.”

The Bombers return to action at 6 p.m. Friday against Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y.