They say that three's a charm – and it couldn't have proven truer on Saturday afternoon as the Onondaga Community College women's basketball team traveled to Canandaigua to take on the Region 3 number one seeded Finger Lakers Community College Lakers on FLCC's home court.  In the teams' third match up of the season (the first two being Finger Lakes wins during the regular season), the visiting Lazers came away with a thrilling 80-73 win to advance to the regional final on Sunday against Columbia – Greene Community College (71-61 semi-final winners over North Country Community College).

A tightly contested first half saw Onondaga down by three at the end of the first period (18-15) – a margin that was reduced to one at the half (33-32).  The Lazers took the lead at the end of the third quarter – 51-48 – and built the lead to six with 5 minutes left in the final stanza – 69-63 – only to see Finger Lakes go on a 7-0 run to take a 70-69 lead with 3-1/2 minutes left in the game.  With the score tied at 73, Onondaga went on a 7-0 run of their own to close out the win.  And getting back to three's – the Lazers came alive from downtown by connecting on 7 in the second half with Rachel Scalisi (Fabius – Pompey) and Payton Noeller (Cato – Meridian) making three each and Shannon Foehl (Skaneateles) knocking down the deciding three with 54 seconds left in the game.

Scalisi and Sydni Eure (East Syracuse – Minoa) paced a balanced scoring attack for Onondaga with 18 points each while Samantha Britton (Kenmore West – Buffalo) finished with 14, Noeller with 13 and Foehl with 11.  Both Eure and Britton had double doubles with 14 and 11 rebounds respectively, and Foehl distributed 8 assists in the win.

Onondaga's record goes to 25-6 for the season while Finger Lakes falls to 24-4.

The NJCAA Region 3 final will take place on Sunday, March 4 at 2pm at Finger Lakes Community College with the winner advancing to the national tournament which will take place from March 15-17 in Rockford, Illinois.