Senior guard Taylor Meacham tied her career-high with 24 points and SUNY Cobleskill used a 15-1 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to build an eight-point lead on its home court and survived a late Maine Maritime Academy rally to beat the Mariners 55-53 and claim the North Atlantic Conference championship.
MMA was the defending two-time champ and had won 34 straight games against conference opponents.
SUNY Cobleskill, the NAC West Division tourney winner, is now 24-4 and has earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.
NAC East titlist MMA wound up 23-5 and could earn an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament.
Meacham also had six rebounds for the Fighting Tigers. Senior guard Antonia May had 12 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots and Cara Walker, also a senior guard, netted 11 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.
Two-time NAC Player of the Year Logan Thayne was limited to just four points, 15 below her average, but the 6-foot-3 senior center did grab eight rebounds and block two shots.
Junior guard Evelyn Dagan sparked the Mariners with 14 points and she also grabbed four rebounds. Senior forward Sydney Briscoe had 12 points and a game-high 10 rebounds and senior guard Erianna Moore had 10 points, four rebounds and three assists.
Sophomore guard Hailey Blanchard contributed eight points and three rebounds and senior guard Makenzie Monzon had six points, a game-high six assists and three steals.
MMA was leading 42-36 with 2:07 left in the third period when a Walker free throw and two by Bryant closed the gap to three. Meacham sandwiched two layups around a jumper to give the Fighting Tigers a 45-42 lead after three periods.
Dagan and Meacham swapped free throws to open the fourth quarter before May hit a three off a Walker pass and Meacham hit a jumper to expand the lead to eight.
Dagan’s 3-pointer and Blanchard’s two foul shots made it 51-48 with 4:38 to go but Walker nailed a 3-pointer off a Kyra Pence pass and May sank a free throw with 2:21 to go.
Dagan swished a three with 1:53 left to make it 55-51 and Monzon’s layup with 34 seconds left made it 55-53.
The Fighting Tigers held onto the ball until Thayne launched a three with four seconds left that missed but she grabbed the rebound to end the game.
The Fighting Tigers triumphed despite shooting just 31.7 percent from the floor and 13.6 percent beyond the 3-point arc. MMA shot 33.3 percent and 27.3 percent, respectively.
SUNY Cobleskill had a 42-38 edge in rebounding and outscored the Mariners in the paint 30-20.
The teams met in the title game a year ago with Maine Maritime posting a 78-62 win in Castine.