ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Junior Brooke Fields (Owings Mills, Md.) made one-of-two free throws with 2.4 seconds left to lift Roberts Wesleyan College to a 69-68 victory over Daemen College here today in East Coast Conference women's basketball play.
It was an especially tough loss for Daemen, which would have earned its first-ever berth in the ECC Championship Tournament with a win today. The Wildcats closed out the year at 11-15 overall and 8-10 in the league—good for seventh place in the final ECC standings. RWC, which won six of its final eight regular-season games, improved to 17-11 and 11-7 in the ECC. The Redhawks earned the No. 4 seed in the ECC Tournament and will host fifth-seeded New York Institute of Technology in the opening round.
Senior Leah McDonell (North Tonawanda, N.Y./Cardinal O'Hara) made the most of her final game in a Daemen uniform, as she totaled 18 points, a season-high 15 rebounds and five assists. She entered the game just 13 points shy of becoming the 24th player in program history to score 1,000 points. A four-year starter, she closes out her career with 1,005 points, 511 rebounds, 258 assists and 120 steals in 105 career games. Fellow four-year senior Natalie Galus (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier) totaled five points and seven rebounds in her final game and closes out her career with 965 points, 646 rebounds, 198 blocks and 144 three-pointers. She ranks fifth in career blocks and eighth in career three-pointers among Daemen's all-time leaders.
Junior Sarah Saba (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) registered her fifth double-double of the year and finished with 17 points, 14 rebounds three assists and two steals. She will enter her senior year ranked 12th among Daemen's all-time leading scorers with 1,257 points. Freshman Jordan Heinold (Hamburg, N.Y./Immaculata) added 12 points today and finished the year with a team-high 44 three-pointers. Fellow rookie Carina Pringle (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) added eight points.
Fields paced the host Redhawks with 17 points, while junior Lucy Covley (Fairport, N.Y.) went 3-for-8 from downtown and added 14 points.
Neither team led by more than seven points in the game, which featured 11 ties and six lead changes.
A back-and-forth first half featured three ties and seven lead changes. Daemen outscored the Redhawks 11-5 over the first five minutes of the game, but RWC outscored the Wildcats 12-5 the rest of the quarter and the hosts took a 17-16 lead into the second quarter.
Daemen took a 21-17 lead following a jumper by Saba 1:33 into the second quarter, but RWC answered with a three-pointer by freshman Sara Nady (Cairo, Egypt) and neither team led by more than three points the rest of the half. The teams headed into the break tied at 32-32.
The Redhawks took their largest lead of the game, 39-34, after Covley canned two free throws three minutes into the second half, but Daemen answered with a 14-3 run over the next three minutes. McDonell scored five points during the spurt, and a jumper by Galus with 4:13 left in the third capped it and gave Daemen a 48-42 lead. Daemen managed just four points the rest of the quarter and the Wildcats took a 52-49 into the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats opened the final frame with a 9-5 run and opened their largest lead of the game, 61-54, after freshman Sydney Jones (Clifton Springs, N.Y./Midlakes) swished a three-pointer following an offensive rebound by McDonell. RWC answered right back with a layup by junior Necedah James (Syracuse, N.Y.) and a three-pointer by Fields, and the hosts later cut the lead to two points, 63-61, following a steal and layup by freshman Emily Miller (Buffalo, N.Y.) with just over four minutes left.
McDonell's fast-break layup gave Daemen a 65-61 advantage, and after a layup by Miller the Wildcats came up with two offensive rebounds on their next possession—the second of which led to a three-pointer by Heinold that gave the visitors a 68-63 lead with 2:25 left. The score remained that way until freshman Taya Andrews (Fort Wayne, Ind.) hit a jumper for the Redhawks with 1:14 to play. Both teams came up empty on their next possession, and Galus was fouled after she collected a rebound of a miss by Fields with 27 seconds left. Galus was off the mark on both free throw attempts, setting up a frantic final half minute. A three-pointer by Nady was off the mark with 19 seconds left, but Miller collected the offensive rebound and fed Covley—the top three-point shooter in the ECC—for the game-tying triple with 12 seconds left. Daemen turned the ball over at the other end, and Fields was fouled while driving the lane in the final seconds—setting up the game-winning point. Daemen never got a shot off in the final 2.4 seconds after inbounding the ball at halfcourt.
Daemen shot 41-percent (29-for-70) from the field overall, but could not find the range from three-point land (4-20) and more importantly was just 6-of-16 from the charity stripe. RWC shot just 36-percent (25-for-70) from the field overall, but connected on 11-of-31 from behind the arc. The Redhawks entered the game averaging a league-high 9.7 three-pointers per game. The hosts made 8-of-12 from the charity stripe.
The Wildcats posted a 51-40 edge in total rebounds. Daemen collected 12 offensive rebounds, which led to an 18-5 edge in second-chance points for the visitors.
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