Ithaca College Advances Past Women’s Basketball

Podcast: Elms head coach Laura Habacker

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Elms College women's basketball team suffered a 84-37 loss to Ithaca College in the opening round of the 2012 NCAA Division III Championship on Friday evening at Ben Light Gymnasium in Ithaca, N.Y.

With the loss, Elms concludes its season 20-9 overall while Ithaca advances to play Bowdoin College (20-7) and improves to 24-4 on the season. The Raptors defeated the University of Southern Maine (21-7) in the other first round matchup.

In the opening 32 seconds of the game, Elms held a 4-2 lead on the strength of baskets by senior forward Erika Murphy (Torrington, Conn.) and Denisha Parks (Fall River, Mass.). Ithaca then exploded for a 21-0 run highlighted by nine-point effort by Kathryn Campbell (Spring Lake, N.J.) and Jenn Escobido (Lisbon, Conn.) during the stretch.

Parks halted the run with a jumper at the 10:00 minute mark – the Blazers' first basket since the first minute of play. Elms then produced a run of its own as Murphy hit two free throws and added a layup and Parks contributed a bucket underneath to set the score at 23-12 with 5:02 to play in the opening frame.

The Bombers extended their lead back to 19 points (31-12) before Parks knocked down the front end of two free throws and sophomore guard Emily Boucher (Ashburnham, Mass.) drained a three-pointer to set the score at 31-16 with 2:21 remaining in the half. Parks then converted a layup with two seconds left to pull Elms to within 15 (33-18) at intermission.

Elms shot 24.1-percent from the field and were forced into nine turnovers. Ithaca hit on 35.9-percent of its first half shots and netted 10 points off Blazers' miscues.

Escobido led the Bombers with 15 points and six boards in the first 20 minutes play, while Campbell and Jessica Farley (South Dayton, N.Y.) added nine and seven points respectively. Devon Shea (Huntingdon Valley, Pa.) added five blocks in the stanza. Elms was led by a nine-point effort from Parks, while she and Murphy each hauled in eight rebounds.

After Ithaca scored the first basket of the second half, Parks netted a layup and senior guard Carolyn Talmadge (Wilbraham, Mass.) canned two free throws to pull the Blazers to within 13 at 35-22 before the Bombers scored 18 unanswered points highlighted by a pair of treys from Campbell to stretch Ithaca's advantage to 53-22 with 11:13 to play. Talmadge broke up the string with a pair of made free throws.

From there, Ithaca pulled away to a 84-37 victory and led by as many as 47 in the second half.

Parks finished with a team-high 15 points and 11 rebounds while Murphy added 11 points and nine rebounds in the losing effort.

Campbell and Escobido notched 19 points each in the winning effort, while Shea and Farley contributed eight boards each.