The Oswego State women's basketball team earned its first victory of the year 66-27 over Medgar Evers College on the first day of the Max Ziel Tournament. With the win, the Lakers improve to 1-1 on the year while the Cougars drop to 0-2. The win also represents Sean Pinkerton's first victory as the head coach of Oswego.
Elmira College defeated Keystone College in the tournament's first game by a score of 63-32. Keystone and Medgar Evers will play the consolation game at 2 p.m. with Oswego and Elmira immediately following in the title contest.
It was all Oswego in the first half, beginning the game with an 8-0 run. The Lakers stretched its lead to as many as 24 in the opening stanza, which happened to represent the 32-8 halftime score. During that span, Tatyana Fish paced all scorers with eight points on 3-for-5 (60.0%) shooting from the floor and a pair of free throws. She was aided by a pair of five-point efforts from sophomore Quincey Zimmerman and junior Rachael Windhausen. In all, eight Lakers made their way into the point column over the first two quarters, including Raiven Encarnacion (4), Courtney Ameele (3), Morgan Wolanin (3), Erin Gantley (2) and Sarah Feminella (2).
The second half was much of the same story as the Lakers outscored the Cougars 34-19 to reach the 39-point final margin. Two more Oswego players made their way onto the scoreboard in the final two periods as Zana Dillard tallied four points and Kiki Wright notched a field-goal.
Ameele finished with a game-high 15 points while Fish was also in double-figures with 13. Windhausen and Encarnacion each recorded nine points while Zimmerman added seven.
Wolanin was the only player in the game to reach double-figures on the boards, reining in 12 rebounds for a new career-high. Feminella was just one-shy of double-digit rebounds while Windhausen and Dillard each collected eight.
The defense was stifling all night as Windhausen was able to swat three of Oswego's total nine blocks. Ameele swiped five steals while Gantley chipped in four of the Lakers' 16.
