(Canton, N.Y.)- The SUNY Canton women’s basketball team will play for the 2010-11 Sunrise Conference women’s basketball championship after capturing a hard-fought and thrilling 68-64 win over the University of Maine at Presque Isle Saturday afternoon in Windham, Maine.

The No. 2 Roos continued on their hot tear as they won their eighth game in a row beating the Owls for the third time this season.  SUNY Canton moved to 13-9 overall and will face No. 4 University of Maine at Machias on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the championship game.  The Clippers upset top-seeded University of Maine at Fort Kent 67-52 in the other first-round game.  This is the second straight year the Roos have appeared in the championship game.

Both teams came up with huge plays throughout the game that kept the score close through the whole 40 minutes.  Shannon LaFave (Ogdensburg, N.Y.)  had one of those plays in the final seconds that held the Owls at bay.  After a missed shot by the Owls, the Roos corralled the rebound and Brittany Kenyon (Hammond, N.Y.) was fouled.  The junior missed the front end of the one-and-one with 13 seconds left and LaFave snagged the offensive rebound and banked it off the glass and in for a four-point lead.  The Owls misfired on a three-point attempt and the Roos ran out the clock.

The Roos had a shaky start to the game as they had several turnovers on their first several offensive possessions of the game.  After falling behind 20-11, the Roos settled down and reeled off a 15-3 run to close the half and lead 26-23 at halftime.  Ilijana Todorovic (Banja Luka, Bosnia) scored back-to-back layups during that stretch and LaFave converted a three-point when she was fouled after scoring on an offensive rebound and put back.  Todorovic matched her career-high with 16 points and LaFave finished with 15 points and eight rebounds.

The Roos opened the second half on a 9-2 run, five points coming from Kenyon, to stretch the lead to 35-25.  SUNY Canton opened an eight-point lead on two separate other occasions but the Owls didn’t go away and they were able to stay in the game thanks to several key layups from Rashell Saucier and several timely 3-pointers from Emily Pelletier.

But the Roos had an answer each time the Owls pulled close and received key contributions from each member of the team.

Kenyon had 11 points and four steals.  Jackie Maynard (Brasher Falls, N.Y.) added 10 points and Small ended the day with six points and four assists.

Pelletier drained five triples for the Owls and finished with 17 points and two assists and Saucier had 16 points and eight rebounds.