BOXSCORE

Sophomore Ellen Story (Catskill, NY/Catskill) scored a career-high 21 points as The College at Brockport's women's basketball team rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to tie the game late, but the Golden Eagles dropped a tough 62-59 contest to Buffalo State Tuesday night on Senior Night inside the Jim and John Vlogianitis Gymnasium.

Story scored 10 first-half points and added 11 in the second half, when the Golden Eagles (6-17 overall, 4-12 SUNYAC) outscored Buffalo State 35-24.

Sophomore Sarah Alwardt (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) scored six points and Story added four points as Brockport opened the second half on a 15-4 run. The spurt pulled Brockport, which trailed 38-24 at halftime, within three, 42-39 with 14:03 remaining.

Freshman Alex Leung (Merrick, NY/W.C. Mepham) drove the lane, hit a layup and was fouled to draw Brockport within 46-45, and Leung converted the layup as the Golden Eagles tied Buffalo State for the first time all game. The Bengals ((13-9, 8-8) answered with a 5-0 run, and the lead remained at five until Story hit a jumper to trim the deficit to 57-54 with 4:14 left.

The teams traded layups until, with the shot clock at one second, junior Rachel Csakany (Schenectady, NY/Schenectady) stepped into a three-pointer and buried her first trey of the year, and first '3' since hitting one against Rochester on Jan. 15, 2009. Csakany's clutch '3' tied the score at 59-all with 1:54 remaining.

Buffalo State then clinched the win by making three of its last four free throws.

“I'm proud of our determination and our fight to not give up, especially when we're down by double-digits,” said Nicole Beauregard, Brockport's third-year head coach.

“We battled and came up short in the end, but if we play hard for 40 minutes until waiting until we're five minutes into the second half, we're not in that position of needing to rally.”

Csakany finished with seven points and nine rebounds, Alwardt added nine points and seven rebounds and Leung finished with seven points and four assists.

Before the game, the Golden Eagles paid tribute to their two seniors, Kristin Abbott (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) and Bobbi Jean Bryden (New Berlin, NY/Morris). Both Abbott and Bryden were in the starting lineup on Senior Night, and the duo played solid defense in the first half.

Bryden, playing in her first game since the passing of her father, Michael Bryden, on Feb. 7, finished with 2 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound and 1 steal.

“Our girls have been great, they've really responded very well to the struggle that Bobbi is facing,” Beauregard said. “I think our girls are also providing Bobbi with the strength and comfort she needs now. … I can't even imagine everything that she's going through. We will continue to use that as a strength for us, that Bobbi can keep going with all she's dealing with. The least we can do is play hard for her.”

The Golden Eagles held Buffalo State's Barb Kiliszek, who entered the game averaging 14.3 points per game, scoreless for the game's first 7:50. However teammate Staci McElroy scored 17 of her game-high 19 points in the first half for the Bengals. After switching to more of a zone look, the Golden Eagles held McElroy and Kiliszek to four combined points in the second half.

Brockport hung with the Bengals for much of the first half, and only trailed 26-22 before the Bengals ripped off a 12-2 run to close out the first half.

The Golden Eagles finish the regular season with a pair of games on the road, facing Oswego at 6 p.m. Friday, and Cortland at 2 p.m. Saturday.

With two regular-season games remaining, Brockport is currently in a three-way tie for seventh place in the SUNYAC standings with Fredonia and Plattsburgh. The top eight teams qualify for the SUNYAC postseason tournament, which runs Feb. 22-26.