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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Fourth-seeded William Smith outscored Nazareth 43-28 in the second half Saturday to rally past the Golden Flyers for an 80-71 women's basketball victory in the seventh-place game of the Wendy's College Classic. The game, played at Nazareth's Kidera Gymnasium, enabled the Herons to win their first game of the season as they now stand at 1-5. Nazareth dropped its third straight tournament game and now stand at 3-3.

Junior Veronica Peck scored a career-high 18 points for Nazareth as she hit six three-pointers. Juniors Lindsey Kelly and Sam Sorge contributed 15 and 14 points respectively. William Smith's Melanie Patterson led all scorers with 25 poinits. Gabrielle Eure scored 18, Ali Pliszka 16 and Chloe Hayter 12.

Nazareth got off to a strong start and led by as many as 12 points on two occasions in the first half. A three-pointer by Sorge made the score 24-12 in Nazareth's favor with 10:40 left. Peck's three-pointer about four minutes later made it 34-22 with 6:19 to go. William Smith rallied to close within three, 40-37, on a basket by Patterson late in the half. Kelly, however, converted a three-point play as time expired to end the half to extend Nazareth's lead to 43-37 at the break.

The Herons then took over in the second half. Nazareth's Melissa Reeves made a free throw in the opening minute, then William Smith rattled off 16 straight points to go up 53-44 and never trailed thereafter. Patterson started the scoring run with a three-pointer and Eure contributed seven of her points.

Nazareth's Julia Brew canned a three-pointer with 7:36 to go to draw the Golden Flyers within two at 61-59, but William Smith answered with a basket and a free throw by Pliszka and a basket by Hailey Dietrich to push the lead back to seven, 66-59. Six straight points by Nazareth -- a three-point play by Sorge and a three-pointer by Peck -- shaved the Heron lead to one point, 66-65, with 4:11 to go, but six straight points for William Smith extended the Herons' lead again. The Herons maintained their advantage by hitting free throws in the closing minute. Patterson made four and Pliszka and Courtney Chase two each.

Poor shooting contributed to the Golden Flyers' second-half scoring woes as they made just 9 of 36 shots (25 percent) in the final 20 minutes, including 4 of 18 (22.2 percent) from three-point range. Nazareth took 38 three-pointers overall and made 11. William Smith shot 49.1 percent (27-for-55) for the game.

Nazareth is idle until after Christmas, when the Golden Flyers travel to Daytona Beach, Fla. for a pair of non-conference games. They play Coast Guard on Dec. 28 and Wesleyan on Dec. 29.