The women’s basketball team shot the lights out as they rolled into a Senior Day blowout, beating the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers 85-59 on Feb. 8 at the Ben Light Gymnasium.
The Bombers rode two streaks into the Saturday matchup: a nine-game win streak that has planted them at the top of the Liberty League standings for the last month, and a 10-game streak over the Engineers. The most recent IC loss in this fixture came on Jan. 25, 2020, when a game-winning lay-up with time expiring gave RPI a 56-54 win.
However, the most dramatic event during this game came in the ceremony prior, in which the Bombers’ seniors were honored. Guard Jillian Payne and forwards Annabella Yorio, Anya Watkins and Isabella Mittelman all accepted their bouquets with family in tow before the game began.
“I was just having a lot of fun all day,” Watkins said. “The girls decorated the locker room, they made us these cute scrapbooks, it was really sentimental.”
The best highlights of the first quarter were two Bomber blocks, evidence of it being the slowest of the game. The first came from junior guard Zoraida Icabalceta, who chased down and swatted away a lay-up attempt from behind with 8:43 on the clock. Less than a minute later, Yorio ripped away a euro-step layup without even jumping, causing the crowd to erupt for a second time.
The second quarter was one of the most offensively sound frames in Bomber history; the 31 points scored are the most a Bombers team have put up in a quarter since Jan. 21, 2017, when they scored 33 in the second quarter of a 98-54 drubbing of Elmira College. This scoring explosion came on an efficient 63% from the field and 6-7 from the three, eye-watering numbers from a team that struggled heavily to shoot the ball early in the season. The playmaking was also elite, with an assist-turnover ratio of 11:1. Icabalceta created four of these chances en route to a seven-assist game, tying her career-high.
This incredible period of play ended with a trio of 3-pointers in the final 72 seconds of the half, capped off by a buzzer-beating left-wing effort by graduate student guard Emma Waite that sent her and the rest of the team skipping into the half with a 15-point lead.
“We kind of stumbled out of the gate, but got it rolling in that second quarter,” head coach Dan Raymond said. “We were making plays for each other and hitting shots and Emma’s feeling it. The great thing with this group is they understand who’s feeling it, and they find ways to get them the ball where they can continue.”
From there, the Bombers cruised to victory without ever taking a foot off the gas. In the end, five Bombers finished the game with double-digit point totals. Waite, Icabalceta, Payne and first-year guard Madison Gill all got their points working from the outside in. The four of them combined to contribute all nine of Ithaca’s baskets outside the arc on just 13 attempts between them.
Despite the all-around impressive shooting, the leading scorer was Watkins, who scored her 17 points on a combination of tough layups, short jumpers and a 100% night from the free throw line.
“I just wanted to go out there and be in the moment and play with all these girls that I love so much,” Watkins said.
The white-hot Bombers improved to 13-7 overall and 12-1 in the conference, and they look toward their final regular season home game against the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 11.
