Morgan Golliver, Staff Writer

On Tuesday evening, The UC women’s basketball team hosted St. John Fisher in an Empire 8 match-up at the Harold T. Clark Athletic Center Gymnasium. Utica came into this game with a three-game winning streak with wins over Alfred, Nazareth, and Elmira, while the Cardinals have lost three out of their last five games.

After winning the tip-off, St. John Fisher did not take long to score the first points of the game as junior Nicole Robinson got past two Utica defenders to score a layup. Utica began struggling early on offense as there were many cases of either mishandling the ball or miscommunication between teammates, however, junior Ashley Mayo was finally able to put up a three pointer to get Utica on the board after an 8-0 Fisher start.

When St. John Fisher began to get into some foul trouble, Utica scored eight points at the line and cut the lead down to seven early in the second quarter, but their defense continued to struggle, allowing Fisher to have a 13-point lead (34-21) at halftime.

Utica’s troubles continued in the second half as they missed many shots, allowing St. John Fisher to obtain a total of 29 defensive rebounds compared to Utica’s 24. With these Utica struggles, St. John Fisher was able to play consistently on offense to build a 20-point lead early in the 3rd quarter. Utica found some advantage at the line, as they outshot Fisher 22-16, but with only being 34 percent compared to Fisher’s 46 percent, it cost them heavily in a game where they could not get in reach of Fisher’s consistent lead.

St. John Fisher went on to win 74-59 over the Pioneers, snapping Utica’s three-game winning streak. Mayo lead the Pioneers with 16 points and junior Caroline Robertson lead the Cardinals with 16 points.

The Pioneers stay home to face the Houghton Highlanders in another Empire 8 Match-up scheduled for Saturday Afternoon.