Elmira, NY - All season long the Clarkson University Women's Basketball team has suffered through some slow starts in each of its games. However, Sunday saw the Golden Knights struggle at the beginning of the second half, watching a four-point lead dissolve quickly into a deficit, and the Green and Gold was unable to recover, dropping a 64-53 decision to Elmira College.

The Golden Knights saw their four-game winning streak come to an end, falling to 4-2 on the season, while Elmira gained its first win to move to 1-6. Clarkson closes out the first semester's non-league games on Tuesday when it hosts St. Joseph's (VT).

In the first half, Clarkson fell behind early as Elmira made three of its first four 3-point field goal attempts in the opening three minutes to force a timeout. Clarkson came back slightly, but staggered back to a 10-point deficit with 12:33 remaining after a pair of Elmira free throws. Over the next five minutes, Clarkson ran off a 9-2 scoring trot to come back to within three points. A lay up by Brooke Butkovsky (Monroe, CT) at the 2:55 mark of the first half gave Clarkson its first lead since the opening basket of the game, and the Knights held on for a two-point lead at the half thanks to free throws from Chrissy Scanlon (Queensbury, NY) and Leighann Tomita (Cerritos, CA).

After the first basket of the second half was scored by the Knights, Elmira went on a 12-1 run and had a seven-point lead just three minutes later. The score would fall back and forth for the next 10 minutes and Clarkson still found itself down by seven points with six minutes to go after a lay up from Taliah Pounds (Watervliet, NY). However, Elmira pushed its lead to as many as 15 points with free throws down the stretch and never let Clarkson get back into the game.

Pounds finished with a team-high 12 points for the Knights, shooting 5-for-10 from the floor. Butkovsky finished with her second straight double-double, contributing 11 points and 11 rebounds, most of which came in the first half. Scanlon also tossed in 10 points, while Tomita came through with eight points, eight rebounds and three steals.

For Elmira, Jessica Zoltowski scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, but shot just 6-for-17 from the field. Alex Balara added 12, going 5-for-9 from the floor, and Darcy James scored 10 points for the Soaring Eagles.