Acosta Surpasses 1,000 Career Points to Help Gators Defeat Defending NAC Champs
ALBANY, N.Y. – Senior Layla Acosta (Haines City, FL/Haines City) became just the tenth Russell Sage College Women's Basketball player to surpass 1,000 career points in this evening's 71-68 non-conference home win vs. SUNY Cobleskill.
ALBANY, N.Y. – Senior Layla Acosta (Haines City, FL/Haines City) became just the tenth Russell Sage College Women's Basketball player to surpass 1,000 career points in this evening's 71-68 non-conference home win vs. SUNY Cobleskill.
The guard led all players with 26 points on 43.5 percent shooting to reach the milestone.
Junior Kallie Hopkins (Millsboro, DE/Poly Tech) registered a double-double of 13 points and 16 rebounds. The forward, scoring in double figures in each of the first seven games of the season, has four double-doubles thus far.
Sophomore guard Jaileen Soto (Phillipsburg, NJ/Phillipsburg) added 17 points on 4-of-8 shooting.
Acosta tallied 22 points in the opening half, including the milestone at the line with 5:21 left before the break. The effort helped the Gators (5-2) build a 29-18 advantage and head into the locker room up 36-28.
The visiting Fighting Tigers, under the direction of RSC Hall of Famer Megan Bowman '15 and coming off a 24-win campaign and NCAA Tournament appearance, opened the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run to get within one, 53-52, with 7:43 to go. The SUNY Cobleskill deficit was never greater than six the rest of the way, including a 58-58 deadlock with 5:47 remaining and a pair of two-point games in the final 21 seconds.
With seven ticks left on the clock, Soto went 1-of-2 at the line to put RSC up 71-68 and give the defending North Atlantic Conference Champions a chance at sending it to overtime. The Fighting Tigers got a good look at the top of the key three but it was off the mark.
Junior guard Hannah Bonczkowski topped SUNY Cobleskill (2-3) with 16 points. Sophomore guard Sydney Delisle and freshman guard Kate Hadwen contributed 14 points apiece.
RSC wraps up the 2025 portion of its calendar on Thursday, December 11 at Westfield State.
Gator Bites with Papa John's: The 2025-2026 season will mark the second with Michael Branche at the helm…The Gators, coming off a trip to the Quarterfinals of the 2024-2025 Empire 8 Conference Championship Tournament, combine eight returners with four newcomers on this year's roster...Acosta, a two-time All-Conference pick, and Hopkins highlight the returnees...Acosta has 1,006 career points...Hopkins finished last season ranked fifth in the E8 with a 7.6 rebounding average…Acosta was tabbed the E8 Player of the Week for the period ending Sunday, November 9…She topped all players with 24 points on 47.3 percent shooting in the season-opening home victory vs. Bard on November 8…Freshman guard Miranda Price (Stillwater, NY/Stillwater) was chosen the E8 Rookie of the Week for the period ending Sunday, November 16…She tallied a game-high 19 points in the home win vs. SUNY Morrisville on November 15…Price went 7-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, in her collegiate debut.