PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Russell Sage College continued its Rochester-area weekend with a 80-75 Empire 8 Conference win at Saint John Fisher.

The Gators (10-14/8-7 E8), which entered the weekend as winners of six of their past seven, trailed 37-25 at the half before flipping the script out of the locker room and out scoring the Cardinals 55-38 in the second half to secure the conference win. 

RSC had three tally 19 points or more in the victory, headlined by guard Layla Acosta (Haines City, FL/Haines City), who was announced as the E8 Player of the Week on Monday. The junior scored a Gator high 23 points while going five-of-six from the free throw line while grabbing three rebounds and dishing three assists.

Sophomore forward Kallie Hopkins (Millsboro, DE/Poly Tech) scored 19 points on 56% shooting while securing four rebounds. Senior Malena Gereau (Schroon Lake, NY/Schroon Lake Central) went six-of-eight from the charity stripe on her way to 19 points of her own. The guard brought down seven rebounds and tallied five steals in the victory.

Senior guard Lauren Sanderson (Ravena, NY/Ravena-Coyemans-Selkirk) added eight points and five steals, while freshman guard Riley Sitcer (Coxsackie, NY/Coxsackie-Athens) scored five points and gathered six rebounds.

SJFU (18-6/13-2 E8) were led by senior guard Katie Moravec, who tallied 23 points, and senior guard Sidney Tomasso, who commenced the weekend as the E8 scoring leader at 19.5 points per-game, who added 22.

"This team continues to impress me," shared head coach Michael Branche following the conference victory. "They have an unbelievable amount of fight and resilience in them. They are showcasing how talented they are. This has been a very competitive conference this year and for our team to go on the road and to win in the toughest place to play is a testament to their hard work." 

The Gators finish the regular season on Tuesday at Hartwick.

Gator Bites with Papa John's: With a February 8 win at Utica, the Gators clinched their fifth appearance in the Empire 8 Conference Championship Tournament…RSC will play in the Quarterfinal round on Saturday, February 22…The season marked the first with Michael Branche as the Head Coach of RSC Women's Basketball…He had been an assistant women's basketball coach since July 2020…12 players, making up just shy of 94 percent of the team scoring returned for the Gators…The dozen combine with five newcomers on this year's squad…RSC finishes the regular season with seven of its last eight games away from home…Senior guard Malena Gereau (Schroon Lake, NY/Schroon Lake Central), junior guard Layla Acosta (Haines City, FL/Haines City), and senior guard Lauren Sanderson (Ravena, NY/Ravena-Coyemans-Selkirk) headline the returning Gators…Acosta was announced as the Empire  8 Conference Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday, February 9…She averaged 20.3 points on 45.8 percent shooting to help RSC clinch a spot in the E8 playoffs with a 3-0 week...The junior commenced the week ranked tenth in the Conference in scoring at 12.5 points per-game…She began the week leading the E8 in free throw percentage…Sophomore forward Kallie Hopkins (Millsboro, DE/Poly Tech) started the weekend leading RSC in rebounding a 7.9, good for fifth in E8…Senior guard Olivia Huneau (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes), Sanderson, and Gereau were voted captains of the team.