Potsdam, NY – A hot first half that saw the Clarkson University Women’s Basketball team shoot over 80 percent at the start of the contest provided enough cushion to give the Golden Knights a 61-55 Liberty League win over Skidmore College Tuesday night at Alumni Gymnasium.

The Golden Knights improved their mark to 4-18 overall and 2-12 in the Liberty League while Skidmore fell to 12-11 overall and 10-4 in conference games. Clarkson closes out the regular season at RIT and William Smith this weekend.

Clarkson enjoyed its best shooting performance of any half of any game against Skidmore in the opening 20 minutes of Tuesday’s contest, shooting 68.2 percent (15-for-22). The figure was even better in the early going, peaking at 86.7% following a run that saw the Knights make 12 of 13 attempts from the field to start the game 13-for-15. The hottest hand of all was freshman Isabella Esposito (Essex, VT), who buried seven of her nine shots from the field for a team-best 15 points, pushing Clarkson to a 19-point lead (29-10) with 7:46 remaining in the first half. Also hitting at a high rate was Ashley Loggins (Albany, NY), who had nine points on 4-for-6 shooting. Conversely, the Thoroughbreds didn’t get on track until late in the half and especially struggled from distances, making only one of their 12 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. Logan Frederick and Lauren Conway were the high scorers for the Thoroughbreds in the early going, each recording six points.

Skidmore quickly erased the Knights’ double-digit advantage by going on a 10-0 run in the first four minutes of the second half, but Clarkson would never relinquish the lead thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers from Ashley Loggins. Every time Skidmore would make a run, Clarkson had an answer, including a big offensive rebounds from Taylor Glidden (Littleton, NH) that turned into a kick out 3-pointer from Melissa Bogart (Voorheesville, NY) late in the game. Free throws down the stretch cinched the win for Clarkson.

Loggins finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds as well as four assists and three steals. Esposito ended with 17 points and Leighann Tomita (Cerritos, CA) had 13 points, shooting 9-for-11 from the free throw line. For Skidmore Angela Botiba contributed 13 points while Logan Frederick had eight points and seven rebounds.