The Onondaga Lazers continued their hot start to the 2015-16 campaign Saturday afternoon. Melissa Bakowski and the fifth-ranked Lazers earned themselves a spot in Sunday's Onondaga Classic Championship, sailing to a commanding 88-24 victory over the Dutchess Community College Falcons.

The Lazers are coming off a 28-5 campaign in 2014-15 which saw Onondaga win Mid-State Athletic Conference Championship before falling in the NJCAA Region 3 Division 3 Championship Game. On Thursday Onondaga also put up 88 points, beating in-state foe SUNY Genesee 88-70 in Batavia, New York.

Onondaga (2-0) made a statement early, going on an 8-0 for the first four minutes of game. The Lazers saw a wide variety of scoring against Dutchess, with 13 players appearing in the scoring column. 

The Lazers defense didn't skip a beat, as Onondaga limited the Falcons to only five first quarter points. An administrative technical foul was assessed to the Lazers with 2:01 remaining in the second quarter due to a scorebook issue. Onondaga locked down the court, and never looked back, taking a 50-14 lead going into the locker room at halftime.

"I thought we shot the ball well and did what we needed to do to get the win" said Onondaga Head Coach Mike Wheeler after the game. "It was our first home game, so we were getting the feel of things. We started off well, got a decent lead, and continued to play well for the rest of the game."

Melissa Bakowski helped widen the margin, scoring a game-high 21 points for the Lazers. Bakowski quickly became a standout for the Lazers last season, and hasn't missed a step so far in the 2015-16 campaign.

In the second half Dutchess still had trouble on the scoring end only scoring five third quarter points, and was unable to stop Onondaga's surge. The Lazers held a 73-19 lead into the fourth quarter, with just a quarter separating them from a spot in 2015 Onondaga Classic Championship.

Onondaga sealed the deal in the fourth with six Imperio Ceasar's eight points on the afternoon. The Lazers also saw Rachael Shute, Casey Gray, Morgan Deland, and Hope DeFazio each contribute seven points each in the semi-final victory.

"Everyday I tell the girls we have a target on our back, and people are going to come out and try and knock us down" added Wheeler when asked about the pressure of being the #5 team in the nation. "We just need to come out and play our game, and continue to do what we do in practice, while emulating it out on the court. We also have to continue to grow as a team and focus on what we can control."

With the victory, Onondaga will play in Sunday's Championship game versus the SUNY Sullivan Generals, a 57-34 winner over Northampton Community College in the second semi, at 12:00PM in the SRC Arena. The Falcons will play Northampton at 11:45AM in Allyn Hall.