ALBANY, N.Y. - Sophomore Katie Titus (Penfield, N.Y.) scored a career-high 27 points and junior Caroline White (Fairport, N.Y.) recorded her second-straight double-double to lead the Daemen College women's basketball team to a 78-57 victory over The College of Saint Rose here today in second round action of the Saint Rose Holiday Classic. Daemen, which is off to its best start since opening the 2012-13 season by winning 11 of its first 13 games, improved to 10-3 with the win. Saint Rose, a member of the Northeast-10 Conference dropped to 4-7.

It marked the final non-conference game for Daemen, which went 8-2 against non-conference teams this season. Daemen entered the weekend ranked 10th in the East Region by the Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Saint Rose scored the first five points of the game and the hosts held a 12-7 lead the Daemen got a jumper from redshirt junior Tiara Filbert (Batavia, N.Y.) and a three-pointer by Titus to knot the game at 12-12. The Golden Knights would take a an 18-16 lead into the second quarter.
• Daemen opened the second quarter with a 7-1 spurt that gave the visitors a 23-19 lead, and the Daemen lead was 28-26 when the Wildcats took control with an 11-1 run. Back-to-back three-pointers by Titus and White capped the run and gave Daemen their largest lead of the first half, 39-27. Daemen took a 39-30 lead into intermission.
• Saint Rose scored the first two points of the third quarter to cut the lead to seven points, but that is as close as the hosts would get as Daemen put together a 14-2 run after that. Senior Jordan Heinold (Hamburg, N.Y.) opened the run with a three-pointer, and her triple with 5:52 left in the quarter capped the run and gave the Wildcats a 53-34 lead. The teams traded baskets the rest of the quarter and Daemen took a 61-41 lead into the final quarter.
• Titus gave Daemen a 69-48 lead with 6:33 to play, before the Golden Knights scored five unanswered points to cut the lead to 16 points. A conventional three-point play by junior Nina Fedullo with 5:27 left capped the spurt, but the Golden Knights would go scoreless for the next three minutes and still trailed by 17 points (72-55) with just under three minutes to play.
• Titus connected on 8-of-18 shots and equaled her career-high for three-pointers in a game with five. She also totaled eight rebounds, a career-high six assists, three blocks and three steals.
• White, who totaled 12 points and 14 rebounds in a win over American International College yesterday, played all 40 minutes and totaled 21 points, 10 rebounds and two steals. She came just one point shy of equaling her career-high for points (22), which she set last month during a win over Barry University.
• Heinold went 3-of-5 from downtown and totaled 11 points, while Filbert chipped in eight points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals. Jeune added six points, a season-high eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.
• McIntyre paced the Golden Knights with 18 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.
• After making just 5-of-16 shots in the first quarter, Daemen connected on 21-of-41 shots over the final three quarters and finished 26-of-57 (46%) from the field overall. The Wildcats shot a sizzling 46-percent (11-for-24) from three-point land and made 15-of-21 from the charity stripe. The Golden Knights made just 21-of-58 shots (36%) overall and just 4-of-18 from behind the arc. The hosts canned 11-of-15 from the charity stripe.
• The Golden Knights had 23 turnovers in the game and Daemen took advantage with an 18-9 edge in points off turnovers. Saint Rose finished with an edge in second chance points (13-6) and points in the paint (30-26).
  

GAME NOTES

• Daemen returns three starters and seven players from last year. The Wildcats are coming off their most successful season since transitioning to NCAA Division II. Daemen posted an 11-game winning streak, won 14 of its final 15 regular-season games, posted a 15-3 league record and finished 18-10 overall.
• Daemen entered the weekend ranked 38th among all Division II schools in scoring defense (57.5 papg) and has now held nine of its 13 opponents to less than 60 points. The Wildcats are a perfect 9-0 when they limit their opponent to less than 60 points.
• Daemen is now 24-5 over its last 29 games dating back to last season.
• Titus entered the game 14 points shy of 500 for her career. She has has now totaled 513 points in 41 career games. She is averaging 13.3 points and 6.6 rebounds this year and also leads the team in blocks (18). 
• White is averaging a team-high 14.5 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds this season. She has already totaled more points (189) this season than she did all of last season (188). She is also just 10 rebounds shy of equaling her total from last year (114).
• Filbert saw her string of six-straight games with at least 10 points come to an end. She is averaging 14.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and a team-high 3.2 assists.
• Heinold has totaled a team-high 31 three-pointers this season and 139 triples over her career. She ranks 10th in career three-pointers made among Daemen's all-time leaders and is just 13 shy of moving into the the top five.
• Jeune has contributed in her first season with the team. She has started all 13 games and is averaging 9.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists. She also leads the team in steals (25).
  

UP NEXT
The Wildcats are idle until the second weekend of January when they host Queens College (Jan. 10) and the University of Bridgeport (Jan. 12) in East Coast Conference games.
 

Daemen College features the only NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.