On Tuesday Dec. 6 the women's basketball team opened up its conference schedule at home with a 12-point overtime victory against bitter rival SUNY Cortland.
"I think it was great the way they came out tonight emotionally and mentally," head coach Scott Hemer said. "Obviously anytime you get a win out of the gate in conference against a perennial favorite that's a successful night."
The Knights and Red Dragons last met in the second round of the 2010-2011 SUNYAC tournament, a game that Geneseo won 69-55. Tuesday night's game, however, had a much different makeup.
After trading the lead multiple times throughout the course of the contest, the two teams entered the five-minute overtime period deadlocked at 63-63. It was a different story, however, once overtime began.
The Knights quickly pulled away thanks to a key three-point shot by senior Meghan Prue and clutch free throw shooting by junior Melissa Graham and sophomore Lea Sobieraski. Geneseo dominated defensively, holding Cortland scoreless throughout overtime, securing the 75-63 victory.
"We stuck to what we wanted to do. We stuck to defense, we stuck to getting rebounds and ultimately that led us to win the game," Prue said about the team's performance in overtime.
"All we ever ask them to do is control what we can control and they did that tonight," Hemer said. "We didn't change a whole lot all night except we made a couple simple adjustments defending the low post and a couple screen situations, but for the most part we had a game plan going in and we knew what we wanted to do and it was just a matter of them executing it."
Graham led the Knights with 24 points while Prue logged a breakout performance with 15 points and seven rebounds, shooting 4-7 from beyond the arc.
"I thought it was a great team effort," Prue said. "I normally haven't been able to take [a more offensive] role and for the first time my teammates realized I could step up and they realized I was feeling it and got me the ball."
On Dec. 1 and 3 the Knights wrapped up play at the Wendy's Classic tournament with a loss to St. John Fisher College, 45-51 and a victory against SUNY Brockport, 70-36. Overall, the Knights improve to 4-2 on the season and 1-0 in SUNYAC play.
Geneseo embarks on its North Country road trip to SUNY Plattsburgh and SUNY Potsdam on Dec. 9 and 10.
"It's always a difficult trip especially since the ladies have exams and papers due next week," Hemer said. "It's a lot of late night travel, but obviously we want to go in and try to win some ball games. I think that's a no-brainer."