The tri-captains of the St. Lawrence University women's basketball team, Kara McDuffee, Allison Cady and Lauren Quattrocchi, combined for 46 points and 19 rebounds on Friday, helping the Saints to a 68-59 win over Union College in Canton, NY.

McDuffee led all players with 16 points and 13 rebounds, her seventh double-double of the season, while both Cady and Quattrocchi added 15 points each. St. Lawrence (9-4, 4-1) used 21 second chance points to help pick up their fourth consecutive conference win. Union played from behind for most of the game after falling behind by 16 early, but the Dutchwomen (8-5, 2-3) were tough and nearly tied the game late in the second half. Natalie Leone and Kate Thompson led the visitors with 13 points each, while the duo combined for 15 boards.

"Union is a good team and they present some real physical challenges at a lot of positions for us. So it didn't surprise me that this was a battle right to the end again, much like our first game," said Saints head coach Dan Roiger. "I loved our start today as we were very strong defensively and on the boards, but then we had some key breakdowns on the defensive end in terms of transition and rebounding and that set back our offense. We really executed our offense well for much of the game, but we also had zero points in a 10 minute stretch as we continue to search for more consistency."

St. Lawrence came out firing and blitzed its way out to a 25-9 lead with 9:52 left in the first half as seven different players helped open up the big lead. However, the home team would go ice-cold in the latter stages of the half, shooting 0-for-14 from the floor with five turnovers as Union held the Saints scoreless for the remainder of the half. The defensive effort and poor shooting allowed the Dutchwomen to pull to within two at halftime down 25-23 thanks to a buzzer-beating jumper by Leone.

The Saints got back on track early in the second half, stretching the lead back to 11 at 36-25 after buckets from Quattrocchi and McDuffee. The Dutchwomen had another push midway through the period, though, as they clawed their way back to within a single possession on several occasions. A pair of Erin Lyons free throws with 4:15 left got Union to within two at 57-55 for the first time since the start of the second half.

Needing a clutch offensive play, Quattrocchi delivered a huge three to push the advantage back to five with under 4:00 minutes remaining. The jumper started a 13-4 St. Lawrence run to close the game thanks to solid free throw shooting and strong possessions, with the home team earning a 68-59 win.

"It was perfect execution in the last two minutes," added Coach Roiger. "We scored on every possession, used the clock effectively, didn't foul and rebounded on the other end. It was really nice to see the maturity in our game at that point."

Union finished with a 30-24 edge in points in the paint and a 45-42 advantage in rebounds. Rookie Kaelyn Kohlasch came up with a few key plays down the stretch, including a big basket and rebound during the closing run.

St. Lawrence will host Rensselaer tomorrow, Saturday, January 17, while Union will head to Potsdam, NY to take on Clarkson University. Both games tip off at 2:00pm.