FIGHTING TIGER WOMEN PULL THE PLUG ON SCHENECTADY ROYALS 58-43
The SUNY Cobleskill women’s basketball team traveled to Schenectady, NY on Thursday to meet the resurgent Royals of Schenectady Community College in Mountain Valley Conference play. The Fighting Tigers’ trip to the “Electric City” saw Cobleskill pull the plug on their hosts defeating the home team by a 58-43 margin. The victory moves the Fighting Tigers to 15-5 overall on the season with a 7-2 record in league play.
Following a forty-five minute delay to the tip-off, due to a lack of officials, Cobleskill came out sluggish and trailed by a 23-20 margin at the half. The Fighting Tigers claimed the lead for good when senior forward Kim Stahl, Scotia, NY, Scotia-Glenville High School, nailed a three-point field goal to give the Cobleskill a 42-39 lead with eight minutes left to play in regulation. From there the team’s inside attack of senior center Kim McMillen, Greenville, NY, Greenville High School, and freshman center/forward April Ackermann, South Huntington, NY, Sullivan West High School, took over. McMillen scored 19 points to go with 15 rebounds and three assists and Ackermann tallied 18 points and five rebounds.
Senior point guard Meghan Smida, Cobleskill, NY, Cobleskill-Richmondville High School, played an outstanding all-around game scoring five points, pulling down three rebounds, making three steals and recording a career high of eight assists. Kim Stahl returned to her area to post an eight point/four rebound effort and guard Erinn O’Rourke, South Glens Falls, NY, South Glens Falls High School, scored eight points coupled with four assists, three rebounds and three steals on the evening.
“I don’t like to make excuses but we started out very flat in the first half. Maybe it was the delay but we were stagnant and did not move at all,” said Fighting Tiger Head Coach Josh Suttles. “In the second half we came out with a new found enthusiasm. We always believe that defense can keep you in games when things aren’t going well offensively and our magic number is to hold teams to 42 points defensively. We pretty mush accomplished that tonight and it paid off. The game plan was to work them over inside and I thought Kim (McMillen) and April (Ackermann) did a good job of that with 37 points and 20 rebounds between them. Also Meghan Smida did a great job defensively of pressuring the ball in the second half when we picked them up with a man-to-man full court press.”
The Fighting Tigers return to action on Tuesday February 6th when they host the nation’s number two ranked team the unbeaten Hawks of Mohawk Valley Community College at 5:00 PM as part of a Mountain Valley Conference men’s/women’s doubleheader. The Fighting Tiger men will face the Hawks at 7:00 PM in the nightcap. Admission to all SUNY Cobleskill regular season home games is free to the public.
