Geneva, NY – The freshman class of the Clarkson University Women’s Basketball team combined for 47 points on Friday evening, but that production wasn’t enough to defeat William Smith as the Golden Knights dropped an 85-59 Liberty League decision.

The Golden Knights saw their record evened at 5-5 overall while falling to 0-2 in the Liberty League. William Smith moved to 5-6 overall and pushed to 1-1 in conference games. Clarkson will take on conference newcomer Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday afternoon.

William Smith opened the game with a 10-2 run in the first three minutes, but the Golden Knights would not allow themselves to get buried that early, going on a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to take a 14-12 advantage on a Noelle Miller (Hamburg, NY) lay up. However, the Herons scored the next 10 points to regain the lead in a hot-shooting first half. William Smith went 18-for-29, shooting 62.1 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from beyond the 3-point arc on 6-for-9 shooting from deep. Clarkson couldn’t quite keep the pace, but still put together a solid offensive output of its own with 37 points. Unfortunately, with few misses from the Herons, Clarkson found itself trailing by 11 points at the half.

Freshman Leighann Tomita (Cerritos, CA) led the Knights with 14 points, but the offensive story of the first half was Sasha Borenstein, who scored 15 points off the bench, burying five of her seven 3-point attempts.

While William Smith’s shooting cooled off in the second half, the Herons were able to increase their lead with second-chance points as they snagged 13 of the first 19 rebounds to minimize the Knights opportunities and increase their own. Clarkson’s shooting struggled in the second half after a respectable first half saw the Knights shoot 45 percent. The final eight minutes of the contest were indicative of the drop off as the Knights went more than seven minutes without a field goal as William Smith continued to add to its advantage down the stretch.

Tomita finished with 16 points overall and added four assists to lead Clarkson, and classmate Brooke Butkovsky (Monroe, CT) tossed in 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Another freshman Raeanne Clabeaux (New Woodstock, NY) added 13 points and six rebounds for Clarkson.

Sasha Borenstein finished with 24 points, making eight 3-point attempts in 14 tries for the Herons. Kristen Kush was the only other William Smith player in double figures, scoring 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting.