ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women's basketball team (15-4, 8-2 Liberty League) matched its program record for wins in a season, winning its 15th game of the season in am 87-76 viictory over Skidmore College Saturday afternoon. The 15 wins matches the program record set back in the 2006-07 season. RIT went 15-12 that season.
 
"I thought we turned the corner as a team this afternoon," said RIT head coach Amy Reed. "It had been a while since we played a full 40 minutes, and we came pretty close to that today."

RIT shot 51.7 percent from the floor on 30-of-58 shooting. The Tigers went 10-of-25 from 3-point land, and went 17-of-23 from the foul line. Sophomore Jessica Glaz (Rockaway Beach, NY/Scholars Academy) and freshman Tara Lynch (Green Township, NJ/Newton) led RIT with 23 points apiece. Julia Bender (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) added 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Kara Birrell (Keego Harbor, MI/Walled Lake) chipped in 12 points off the bench for the Tigers. Maria Edwards (Forrest Hill, MD/The Carroll School) tied a program-record with 11 assists on Saturday.
 
"I thought Maria (Edwards) was a difference maker with her 11 assists," said Reed. "I thought Julia (Bender) did a good job defensively, especially in the second half, and Tara (Lynch) and Jess (Glaz) were excellent offensively. Overall it was a great team win."

Kelly Donnelly led Skidmore with 25 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 10-of-11 from the floor. Migle Vilunaite added 14 points, while Veronica Moceri and Haley English each tallied nine points for the Thoroughbreds who shot 46.0 percent from the floor.

Skidmore led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter on a Vilunaite layup with 4:18 to play in the opening quarter, giving the Thoroughbreds a 13-2 lead. Birrell gave RIT its first lead of the quarter with 1:26 to play when she buried a deep three giving the Tigers a 14-13 lead.

A Donnelly jumper and an English three gave Skidmore an 18-14 lead with two seconds to play in the quarter, but came down and drained her second three of the quarter off an assist from Glaz, cutting the Skidmore lead to 18-17 after 10 minutes of play.

The Tigers kept the momentum heading into the second quarter, out scoring Skidmore 7-1 to open the quarter, taking a 25-18 lead on a Taylor Burns (Rochester, NY/Greece Odyssey) three pointer. Glaz drained a three off an assist from Edwards with 4:37 to play in the second quarter giving RIT its largest lead to that point at 35-26.

The Thoroughbreds would rally, cutting the Tigers lead to three points on a bucket by Donnelly with 3:02 to play in the half. She drained a shot with time running out in the half to make it 41-39 Tigers at the break.

RIT shot 48.4 percent from the floor in the first half on 15-of-31 shooting. Glaz led the Tigers with 12 points, while Lynch added eight points and Birell tallied nine points off the bench.

RIT would build its lead to eight points on a layup by Lynch with 6:41 to play in the third quarter. Her bucket with 4:54 to play off an assist from Edwards made it 55-47 Tigers. The Thoroughbreds would rally, tying the score at 59-59 on an old fashioned 3-point play by Donnelly. After an Amber Holgate jumper tied the score at 61-61, Bender laid the ball in off an assist from Cori Okada (Fullerton, CA/Troy) giving the Tigers a 63-61 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Skidmore got to within one point on a Holgate 3-pointer with 8:55 to play in the game. English made it a one-point game with her bucket with 5:47 to play making it 70-69. After a pair of Glaz free throws made it 72-69 Tigers, Veronica Moceri made it 72-71 RIT with her bucket. With 4:26 to play.

The Tigers finished the game strong, out scoring Skidmore 15-5 over the final 4:26. Lynch scored five points during that stretch, while Glaz tallied a pair of clutch free throws to maintain the Tigers lead.

It is the fifth straight victory for the Tigers who improve to 6-4 all time versus Skidmore. That completes the regular season sweep for RIT over Skidmore.

RIT returns to action on Friday, Feb. 5 when the Tigers face Bard College at 6 p.m. in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.