The Middlebury women's basketball team improved to 6-3 with an 81-60 victory at Plattsburgh State (3-6) on Wednesday. The Panthers are idle until December 30th when they travel to Union for a 3:00 p.m. tipoff. 
 
The Cardinals opened the contest with a five-point spurt, capped on a three-pointer from Mya Smith at the 8:05 mark. Middlebury answered, knotting the game at seven points apiece on a basket from Bethany Lucey with 6:03 to go in the stanza. The game was tied three more times before the Panthers went on a 7-0 run, closing out the opening frame with a 20-13 lead. 
 
Middlebury carried its momentum into the second quarter, scoring nine of the first 12 points to take its largest advantage of the game (29-16) with just over five minutes to go in the half. Plattsburgh chipped away at the deficit, cutting it to six (31-25) on a trey from Smith. The Panthers responded with a 6-2 spurt, extending the lead to 37-27 with 1:07 remaining. Claire Miller went 4-4 from the charity stripe during the span, as Middlebury headed into the break with a 41-30 advantage.
 
The third quarter went back-and-forth early on, before Smith sank another shot from beyond the arc to pull Plattsburgh within seven (53-46) with 4:23 to go in the stanza. Middlebury tallied 10 unanswered points to close out the quarter, capped on a three from Alexa Mustafaj to make it 63-46. 
 
The Panthers maintained a significant lead throughout the remainder of the game, easing to the 81-60 victory.
 
Mustafaj paced Middlebury with 24 points, going 5-6 at the charity stripe, while adding seven rebounds. Lucey tallied 14 points, shooting 6-8 from the floor, while Miller had 13 points and seven boards. Gianna Palli grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. 
 
Smith led Plattsburgh with 24 points, converting all six free throws. Payton Couture had 14 points for the Cardinals and four rebounds, while Brittani Campbell and Misa Dowdell each pulled down five boards.