Box Score

Daemen (14-4) 26-34--60
Valley City State (11-2) 32-20--52

AVE MARIA, Fla. - A 20-0 run spanning the end of the first half and beginning of the second helped the Daemen College women's basketball team pick up a 60-52 neutral site victory today as they downed Valley City State University at the Ave Maria University Holiday Classic held at the Tom Golisano Field House.

Daemen, the top-ranked team in the USCAA national poll, improved to 14-4 on the season while VCSU (11-2), the #17 ranked team in NAIA Division II, suffered just its second setback of the season.

A jumper by VCSU's Courtney Titus at the 2:00 mark of the first half gave the Vikings a 32-19 lead, their largest separation of the game.

But, Daemen closed the half with seven straight points, including a three-pointer by junior guard Lindsay Stoddard (Limestone, N.Y./Allegany-Limestone) at the 1:02 mark.  Two free throws from senior center Monica Kosior (Grimsby, Ont./Canisius College) trimmed the deficit to just six at the break (32-26).

The Wildcats extended the run to open the second half, getting buckets by senior guard Samantha Stanfield (Brooklyn, N.Y./James Madison) and Kosior and a free throw by senior guard Ellie Allen (Amherst, N.Y./Sweet Home) to cut the Viking lead to just one (32-31) with 17:42 to go.

A layup by senior guard/forward Chelsea Andorka (Canton, Ohio/Notre Dame College) at the 17:01 mark gave Daemen its first lead (33-32) since it led 6-5 at the 16:45 mark of the opening half.

Another Stanfield jumper followed by back-to-back layups by Allen capped the run, turning a 13-point deficit into a seven-point lead (39-32) with 14:10 remaining.

Titus hit a three-pointer for VCSU at the 13:47 mark ending an eight-minute scoring drought for the Vikings.

Daemen responded with baskets by Andorka and Allen to push their lead up to eight (43-35) with 12:15 to play.

From there, VCSU trimmed the Daemen lead to just two on three ocassions.  All three were met with baskets by Allen to help Daemen stem the tide.  She hit a jumper at the 5:54 mark, a layup at 4:41 and another jumper at 3:15 as VCSU was never given a chance to tie the game.

Allen's last bucket was followed by two Kosior freebies to push the Wildcat lead back to seven (56-49) with 2:31 remaining.

The Wildcats connected on 4-of-6 from the charity stripe in the final minute to keep VCSU at bay.  A Stoddard free throw with 10 ticks left gave Daemen its largest lead of the game (60-51).

Allen led the way with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go with seven rebounds and three assists.  Kosior added her sixth double-double of the season - and second in the last three games - with 13 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Stanfield chipped in with 11 points for her second consecutive game in double figures.  She added six boards as well.  Andorka finished with nine points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Brittany Lehner paced the Vikings with 17 points and 10 rebounds.  Titus chipped in with 10 points, three assists and three steals.

Daemen shot 50-percent from the field in the second half (14-for-28) and limited the Vikings to just 9-for-31 shooting in the period (29-percent).  The Wildcats also converted 15-of-26 free throw attempts, compared to just 2-for-4 for VCSU.

Daemen dominated the battle of the backboard, out-rebounding the Vikings 44-29.

The Wildcats are back in action tomorrow (Dec. 30) when they face the tournament host Ave Maria Gyrenes at 4 p.m.  The game features the top two ranked teams in the USCAA as the Gyrenes (6-5), a dual member of the NAIA and USCAA, are right behind Daemen in the latest national poll.