OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. – Graduate student Maia Hood (Elmsford, N.Y.) totaled 19 points and 12 rebounds to lead New York Institute of Technology to a 61-51 victory over Daemen College here today in East Coast Conference women's basketball action.
It marked the regular-season finale for both teams, and finalized the seeds for the upcoming ECC Championship Tournament. NYIT (17-11, 11-7 ECC) secured the No. 4 seed and a home playoff game on Wednesday (Feb. 28). Daemen (12-16, 9-9 ECC), which could have earned the No. 4 seed with a win today, is seeded sixth and is headed to third-seeded Roberts Wesleyan College (19-9, 13-5) for its opening-round game on Wednesday. The Wildcats will be making their first-ever appearance in the ECC Tournament since joining the league in 2013-14.
Long Island University Post (22-6, 17-1) is the regular-season champion and the No. 1 seed in the ECC Tournament, while Saint Thomas Aquinas College (24-4, 16-2) earned the No. 2 seeded. LIU Post and STAC get first-round byes into the semifinals. New York Tech will host No. 5 Queens (13-13, 9-9) in the other opening round game Wednesday. The semifinals (March 3) and championship game (March 4) will take place at Voller Athletic Center on the campus of Roberts Wesleyan. The ECC Tournament championship earns an automatic bid into the 64-team NCAA Division II Championship Tournament.
Senior Sarah Saba (Lancaster, N.Y.) paced the Wildcats with 15 points, five rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals. She entered the game needing 13 points to close out the regular season as the ECC scoring champion. Saba totaled a league-best 495 points during the regular season, while Jenna Erickson of St. Thomas Aquinas finished with 492. Saba become the first Daemen women's basketball player to claim the ECC regular-season scoring title since the Wildcats entered the league in 2013-14. She also extended her streak of consecutive double-digit scoring games to a career-best 27.
Saba, who is now just five points shy of becoming the first Daemen women's basketball player to score 500 points in a season since Sarah Soroka scored a program-record 755 in 2010-11, also moved into fifth place in career points among Daemen's all-time leaders today. She has now totaled 1,752 points in 109 career games.
Rookies Tiara Filbert (Batavia, N.Y.) and Caroline White (Fairport, N.Y.) helped the Daemen cause today, as they both totaled 11 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Sarah Young (Depew, N.Y.) chipped in six points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
Hood was the only player to reach double figures for NYIT, as she connected on 8-of-15 shots. Freshman Taylor Triptree (East Setaukey, N.Y.) added eight points and 11 rebounds, while senior Nina Vukosavljevic (Belgrade, Serbia) totaled seven points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Daemen scored the first six points of the game and later took a 14-8 lead following a putback by Young with 3:20 left in the first quarter. The Bears got back-to-back layups by Hood to cut the lead to two points, and Daemen eventually took a 19-16 lead into the second quarter.
The Daemen lead was five points, 24-19, when the Bears got a conventional three-point play by Triptree with 6:18 to play before intermission. Saba picked up her second personal foul on the play, and was forced to the bench for the remainder of the half. Daemen maintained the lead until Triptree drilled a three-pointer with 2:20 left in the second quarter, and the Bears would go on to take a 29-26 lead into the half.
The first six minutes of the third quarter was a back-and-fourth affair that featured six lead changes and one tie. A three-pointer by Filbert with 3:58 left in the quarter gave the Wildcats a 37-35 lead, but a triple by sophomore Corinn Baggs (Staten Island, N.Y.) 15 seconds later sparked NYIT on a 10-run. A three-pointer by freshman Jill Spagnuola (Commack, N.Y.) with 1:24 left in the quarter capped the run and gave the hosts a 45-37 lead. NYIT took a 46-41 lead into the final quarter.
Hood gave the hosts a 48-41 lead a minute into the final quarter, but Daemen chipped away and eventually made it a one-possession game, 50-47, following a layup by White with 5:17 left. The lead was still three points (52-49), when the Bears got back-to-back three-pointers by Vukosavljevic and freshman Shalie Frierson (Troy, N.Y.) to take a 58-49 lead with just under three minutes to play. Vukosavljevic, who entered the game with a team-high 49 three-pointers, had gone 0-5 from downtown and 0-for-14 overall prior to hitting her triple. Neither team scored again until Frierson made one-of-two free throws with 1:39 left, and Daemen came no closer than eight points down the stretch.
Daemen shot 33-percent (22-for-66) from the field overall and made just 4-of-22 from three-point land. The Wildcats attempted only five free throws and made three. NYIT shot just 30-percent (20-for-66) from the field overall and made 7-of-21 from downtown. The hosts attempted 19 free throws and made 14. The Bears finished with a 53-42 edge in total rebounds, and the hosts also finished with the advantage in second-chance points (21-16) and bench points (13-6). Daemen finished with a 24-22 edge in points in the paint.
The time for Wednesday's first-round ECC Tournament game at Roberts Wesleyan will be announced later, and a full game preview will be posted on www.daemenwildcats.com.
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