Elmira, NY -- The Elmira College women's basketball team could not seem to get their offense going this afternoon, as EC fell to visiting SUNY Cortland, 60-34. Eight players recorded points in today's contest, but none reached double-digits as Meghan Loya '16, with her eight points, was the scoring high for the Soaring Eagles.
 
Loya added five rebounds and a block to her eight points, and despite totaling four fouls, played 32 minutes. Coming in behind Loya in the scoring column were Alex Balara'15 and Ashley Heiman'16, who tallied six points apiece. Balara was unable to get many, if any, open looks today, but even with the tough defense being played on her, Balara finished with a stat line of six points, two rebounds, three assists, and four steals. Heiman played 15 minutes off the bench and finished her afternoon with six points, four rebounds, and two steals.
 
Missed baskets plagued both teams at the start of the first half, but the shots started to fall for the Red Dragons about five minutes into the game and Cortland started to take control. EC trailed 10-2 with 13:19 to play in the opening half, but on Elmira's next possession, a Danielle Cleary'18 three-pointer cut the deficit to five points. Unfortunately for EC, that would be as close as they would get in the first half as Cortland closed the half on a 16-9 run to take a 26-14 lead into the locker rooms.
 
A steal and a layup by Balara to open the second half gave EC a brief boost of momentum, but Cortland answered with five straight points to halt the potential Elmira comeback. In fact, the Red Dragons led by as many as 28 points before closing out the 60-34 win.
 
EC has over a week between competitions as they return to action on Monday, February 2nd when they host Penn College in a game rescheduled from December 2nd. Tip-off for the non-conference game is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. in Speidel Gymnasium.