SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Senior Kennedy Clark scored nine of her 13 points in the fourth period as the Union College women's basketball team came back to defeat St. Lawrence University by a 61-56 score in Liberty League action on Saturday afternoon at Viniar Athletic Center.
 
The victory was huge for Union (9-14, 8-8 Liberty League) in bolstering its postseason hopes, moving the Garnet Chargers into sole possession of fifth place with two games remaining. Union needs one win in its final two games to clinch a postseason spot and now still has an outside spot at the fourth seed, sitting one game back of St. Lawrence (9-7, 11-12 Liberty League) in the fourth spot.
 
Several seniors played big roles in the victory on Senior Day. Grace Enselek led the team with 14 points and eight rebounds, followed by Clark with 13 points and six boards. Maddy Mandalinci also chipped in six points as well for the home team.
 
The first half was a tale of two periods, as St. Lawrence outscored Union by a 25-12 margin in the first frame only to see the Garnet Chargers outscore the Saints 23-9 in the second stanza to take a 35-34 lead into the locker rooms.
 
SLU shot 43.5 percent (10 of 23) and turned seven offensive rebounds into 14 second-chance points in building up a big first-period lead. After a layup by senior Kennedy Clark made the score 7-4 in favor of the visitors, the Saints rattled off 11 straight points to take their largest lead of the half at 18-4 with 3:10 left. Union got back within 11 before a last-second basket put SLU up 13 after 10 minutes.
 
A Norah Niesz bucket started the second quarter for the Saints, but four points from Mandalinci and two from Clark helped to stem the tide. SLU still led by a 31-24 score with 5:01 left in the second before the Garnet Chargers went on an 11-1 run, hitting 5-of-6 shots from the field to take back the lead at 33-32 with under two minutes remaining. Two Enselek freebies with 1:18 on the clock put the home team up 35-34 after 20 minutes.
 
SLU outscored Union 12-7 in the third period to take a four-point lead (46-42) into the final frame, and built the lead up to 48-42 on the opening possession on the fourth. The momentum changed soon after, however, with a driving layup by Clark jumpstarting an 11-0 run over the span of 5:25 that put Union up 53-48 with 4:23 remaining. Clark had six points for the Garnet Chargers, who limited St. Lawrence to 0-of-7 shooting during the run.
 
The visitors came back with six straight points to take their last lead of the game at 54-53 after a Jackie Malley three with 2:14 on the clock, but Forman made a second-chance layup on the next possession to put Union back up by a point. Forman made another huge bucket in the final minute, taking a great feed from sophomore Grace Arcoleo and finishing in traffic to bump the lead up to three (59-56) with 22 ticks left. Two more defensive stops and a pair of free throws helped seal the victory for Union after that.
 
After a solid first frame, St. Lawrence shot 9-of-48 (18.7 percent) over the final three frames to finish the game at 26.8 percent (19 of 71), including a 6-of-29 effort (20.7 percent) from three-point range. After rough shooting in the first and third periods, Union shot 50.0 percent (6 of 12) in the fourth frame to end the game at 36.7 percent (22 of 60) from the field.
 
Union will close out the regular season on the road next weekend, beginning on Friday with a huge 5:30 p.m. tipoff against RIT.