The Ithaca College women’s basketball team is now one step closer to Liberty League Championship Tournament glory after its 64-48 semifinal victory over the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers on Feb. 28 at the Ben Light Gymnasium.
The Bombers earned the right to host the Liberty League Championship after achieving an outstanding conference record of 17-1. Two of those wins were against the Tigers, off the back of graduate student guard Emma Waite, a transfer from RIT. Those were two of her highest-scoring games as a Bomber, putting up 18 in the away fixture and 22 at home.
The atmosphere of the Ben Light Gymnasium was much different than in those regular season games, though. On this day, Liberty League Championship banners were hanging across the gym alongside bleachers packed with home and away fans. A new student section full of the IC faithful, dressed in costumes that ranged from the Cat in the Hat to a bald eagle, was placed at the visiting team’s end of the court.
The game started very slow offensively because the only bucket for the first two minutes was a wing 3-pointer from graduate student guard June Dickson. However, the Bombers put a back-and-forth first quarter to rest on a 9-0 run, capped off by a buzzer-beating lay-up from first-year guard Madison Gill.
From there it was smooth sailing for the South Hill squad. Dickson caught a defender stumbling with a dribble jab step and pulled up from the elbow for the first basket of quarter two, but highlights came on both ends of the court for the Bombers in the second. With just over two and a half minutes left in the half, Waite — who stands at five feet tall — swatted away a lay-up attempt from the Tigers’ 6-foot-2 first-year forward Ben Kayser-Cochran on a possession that ended in a shot clock violation.
It was not just Waite who locked in defensively for the Bombers, though; a Tigers team that ranked 14th in Division III in 3-point percentage before this game was held to 0-6 from beyond the arc in the first half, and a measly .200 for the full game. Head coach Dan Raymond laid out the successful strategy afterward.
“We decided to go under [their screens] and have them prove to us that they could make those shots and, fortunately, it worked out in our favor,” Raymond said. “We were going on under all the screens, trying to keep them out of the paint, because the easiest 3-point shot is one where it’s drive and kick.”
The second half seemed to be about maintaining the double-digit lead the first half had set up for the Bombers, and back-to-back threes from Dickson and sophomore guard Tori Drevna quickly extended it. Raymond said he was starting a much more guard-heavy lineup than usual to see more perimeter options on the court at once, and his plans bore fruit. Of the seven players who played at least 10 minutes in Friday’s game, five made a 3-pointer, and the team shot .421 from deep.
Dickson led the charge from beyond the arc as her 13 points and three triples were the most for her since opening night. She explained how bittersweet putting up big stats in such an important game as a graduate student felt.
“I love this group of girls, and I’m so glad to be able to finish [my career] off with them,” Dickson said. “But I’ve been playing basketball for a very long time, so it’s gonna be sad to end it. Hopefully, I don’t have to end it too soon and we can keep going.”
For Dickson to get her wish, IC will have to win the Liberty League Championship, and right now the only thing between it and the title is the Vassar College Brewers, who took down Skidmore College in its semifinal 67-51 to earn a championship berth.
The Bombers and Brewers will face off for the third time at 3 p.m. March 2nd in the Ben Light Gymnasium in the biggest game of the year — the Liberty League Championship.
