AMHERST, N.Y. – A three-pointer by senior Julie Williams (Smithtown, N.Y.) with 10 seconds to play lifted New York Institute of Technology to a 64-63 victory over Daemen College here tonight in East Coast Conference women's basketball action. NYIT improved to 7-5 overall and 2-3 in the league, while Daemen slipped to 3-6 overall and 1-3 in the ECC. It marked the first home game of the season for Daemen, which opened the year with eight-straight road/neutral site games.
Junior Sarah Saba (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) played all 40 minutes for Daemen and registered a career-high 28 points. Saba, who scored 20 points after halftime, connected on 8-of-17 shots and was 11-for-12 from the charity stripe. She also totaled six rebounds, three assists and three steals. The 28-point effort leaves her just 10 points shy of becoming the 23rd player in program history to score 1,000 career points.
Senior Leah McDonell (North Tonawanda, N.Y./Cardinal O'Hara) and freshman Jordan Heinold (Hamburg, N.Y./Immaculata Academy) also played key roles for the hosts. McDonell scored a team-high 11 points in the first half and finished with 16 points, six rebounds and three steals in 39 minutes of action. Heinold scored in double figures for the third-straight game and totaled 13 points—all of which came in the second half.
Senior Shanice Allen (Riverhead, N.Y.) drilled five three-pointers and scored a team-high 20 points for the Bears. Freshman Margaret Knollmeyer (Hampton, N.H.) racked up 12 points and 12 rebounds en route to her sixth double-double of the year. Williams finished with 11 points, while junior Nina Vukosavljevic (Belgrade, Serbia) totaled eight points, six rebounds and eight assists for the visitors.
Daemen dominated the third quarter to the tune of 25-8 and the hosts took a 46-38 lead into the final quarter. The lead bounced between five points and eight points for the first five minutes of the final quarter, and Daemen held a 58-50 lead when the Bears ran off six-straight points and cut the lead to two, 58-56, following a layup by Knollmeyer with 3:03 to play. Daemen answered with a three-pointer by McDonell, but Vukosavljevic responded with a triple at the other end. Daemen came up empty on its next two possessions, and NYIT made 2-of-4 free throws during that time to knot the score at 61-61 with 49 seconds left. Saba split a double team and hit an off-balance jumper with 17 seconds left, setting up the game-winning shot by Williams. After a timeout, Vukosavljevic found an open Williams in front of the NYIT bench and the senior swished the shot to give the Bears a 64-63 lead. Williams was just 1-of-8 from downtown in the game prior to draining the game-winner. Saba's contested baseline jumper at the buzzer was off the mark.
A three-pointer by Saba 1:33 into the contest gave the Wildcats a 5-2 lead, before the Bears responded with nine unanswered points and took an 11-5 lead following a steal and layup by Allen midway through the first quarter. The lead was 13-8 when the Bears closed out the frame with a layup by sophomore Tiara Place (Baldwin, N.Y.) and a three-pointer by Allen for an 18-8 lead.
A three-pointer by Allen with 5:29 left before halftime gave the Bears their largest lead of the first half (25-13), but Daemen took advantage of some NYIT turnovers and clawed its way back into the game with an 8-2 run. McDonell scored the first six points of the run and a layup by Saba off a feed from McDonell capped the rally and cut the NYIT lead to six points, 27-21. The Bears regained a nine-point lead following Allen's fourth three-pointer of the half and the visitors took a 30-21 lead into the break.
Neither team scored for the first two minutes of the third quarter before the Wildcats got a conventional three-point play by Saba and steal and layup by McDonell to cut the lead to 30-26. The score was 36-32 NYIT with just under five minutes left in the quarter when the hosts ran off 14 unanswered points. Heinold and Saba accounted for all the scoring during the run. Heinold drilled two three-pointers and scored eight points, while Saba went 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. NYIT scored the final two points of the quarter and Daemen took a 46-38 lead into the final 10 minutes.
Daemen shot 48-percent (14-for-29) from the field in the second half and finished 22-for-57 (39%) from the field overall. The Wildcats connected on their first three-point attempt of the game, but missed their next 15 attempts from downtown and finished just 5-of-23 from behind the arc. Daemen went 14-of-18 from the charity stripe. NYIT shot 35-percent (24-for-69) from the field overall and made 9-of-28 from downtown. The Bears connected on just 7-of-13 free throws.
Second-chance points played a big role in the outcome, as the Bears hauled in 20 offensive rebounds and posted a 16-7 advantage in second-chance points. NYIT finished with a 50-33 edge in total rebounds.
Daemen returns to action Monday (Dec. 19) when it hosts Saint Anselm College of the Northeast-10 Conference in a non-league tilt.
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