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ELMIRA, N.Y. -- Senior Sam Sorge scored 13 of her career-high 35 points in the fourth quarter for visiting Nazareth Tuesday as the Golden Flyers surged past Elmira for a 71-56 women's basketball victory in a battle of Empire 8 Conference teams.

The victory enabled Nazareth to snap a four-game losing streak and improved the Golden Flyers' overall record to 7-9, including a 3-4 mark in conference games. Elmira is 5-10 overall and 2-5 in the Empire 8.

Sorge's 35 points were one more than she amassed in a home-court loss to Utica on Jan. 12. She hit 13 of 23 shots from the field, including 4-of-8 from three-poinit range. She also went 5-for-7 from the free throw line and grabbed seven rebounds.

She was especially effective over the final 10 minutes as Nazareth entered the fourth quarter with a tenuous 48-43 lead. Elmira scored the first five points of the period to tie the score, but Nazareth's Samantha Peebles scored on two straight possessions to give the Golden Flyers the lead for good at 52-48.

With five minutes left, Elmira's Danielle Cleary scored to pull the Soaring Eagles to within 56-54. That's when Sorge went to work by scoring nine straight points, including back-to-back three-pointers on consecutive possessions. She followed that with an old-fashioned three-point play as Nazareth's lead swelled to 65-54.

A basket by Rose Pedretti, another field goal by Sorge and a pair of free throws by Lizzie Straub capped a 15-point scoring run that ended with the Golden Flyers comfortably in front 71-54 with less than a minute to play.

In addition to Sorge, Straub and fellow freshman Rachel Benedict scored 12 points each, Benedict also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.

Elmira led 14-12 after the first quarter, but Nazareth rallied to take a 29-28 lead at the half. The lead seesawed back and forth in the third quarter before Nazareth got a free throw from Straub and a basket by Pedretti in the closing secondds of the period to bring a five-point advantage, 48-43, in the fourth quarter..

Nazareth played well defensively by forcing 20 turnovers and limiting the Soaring Eagles to 30.8 percent shooting from the field (20-for-65), including just 2-for-18 from three-point range. In addition Nazareth limited Elmira's high-scoring junior guard Danielle Cleary to just six points, 10 below her season's average.

The teams play again Feb. 9 at Nazareth. The Golden Flyers are home Thursday against St. John Fisher at 6 p.m