UTICA, NY - The Utica College women's basketball team is set to host the Nazareth College Golden Flyers and No. 23 St. John Fisher College Cardinals this weekend. The Pioneers and Golden Flyers will tip-off at 5:30 p.m. on Friday night while Utica will celebrate its senior day against the Cardinals at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Last Time Out: UC's six-game winning streak was snapped by Hartwick College on Tuesday night as the loss moved the Pioneers to 18-3 on the year and 9-3 in Empire 8 play. After the first ten minutes of the game the score was tied at 18 all however, Hartwick had a 19-1 run late in the second quarter that put UC in a deep hole it could not overcome.
Krissy Geraci (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia) led the way with 15 points and nine rebounds for Utica.
Hope Halvarson (Cranston, RI/Cranston East) had herself a breakout game coming off the bench with a career high of 12 points in 17 minutes of action.
Senior Night: This Saturday is designated as Senior night for UC women's basketball as
Brigid Johndrow (Bristol, CT/St. Paul Catholic), Sydney Pryzgoda, and
Cora Sawyer (New London, CT/New London) will all be honored this Saturday. Johndrow has been an all-around defensive presence, leading the team with 2.8 steals per game which also ranks second in the conference. She also leads the entire conference in assists and triple doubles. Sawyer has been an offensive spark for the Pioneers averaging 11.1 points per game while also adding some muscle on the boards with 6.5 rebounds per game.
Sydney Przygoda (Freehold, NJ/Freehold) is in the midst of an incredible and conference MVP worthy season for the Pioneers. She is ranked second in the conference in points per game as well as in rebounds per game. She also had an individual career and team-high 35 points this year against Morrisville.
Break on Through: The Pioneers looked for some much needed emergence off the bench against Hartwick and they got it from
Hope Halvarson (Cranston, RI/Cranston East), scoring a career-high 12 points. In her first season, Halvarson is averaging two points per game on 32.1 percent shooting from the field in a smaller sample size of 8.9 minutes per game. In 15 outings the guard has also compiled 21 rebounds, 10 assists, five blocks and three steals.
Scouting Nazareth: The Golden Flyers are an overall 13-8 this season and 8-4 in Empire 8 conference play. Nazareth is in the midst of a two-game losing skid stemming from back-to-back home losses to Hartwick College and St. John Fisher. The Golden Flyers are led by Jadyn Abrams, who averages 15.7 points per game and shoots roughly 40 percent from the field. Kim Davis and Sabrina Wolfe are also key pieces to Nazareth's offense as both average over 10 points per game and shoot over 45 percent from the field.
About Fisher: The No. 23 St. John Fisher Cardinals enter the weekend 20-2 overall and 12-1 in conference play, good enough for first place in the E8. The Cardinals' only E8 loss came in early January in a 65-56 loss against Hartwick College. As a team, Fisher leads the conference in points per game, points allowed per game, three-point percentage and trails only Utica in field goal percentage. The Cardinals are led by Claire Kruska, who averages 12.6 points per game while teammates Kaitlyn Walker and Miranda Lynch also average double figures in points on 46 percent shooting or better.
A Look Ahead: UC rounds out its season next weekend when the team travels to Houghton College on Friday night and Alfred University on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off from Houghton, NY will be at 5:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. from Alfred, NY.
