SPARKILL, N.Y. - The Daemen College women's basketball team saw its 11-game winning streak come to an end following a 65-41 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas College here tonight in East Coast Conference action. STAC, the defending conference champion, extended a pair of streaks of their own. The Spartans have now won seven in a row overall and 20-straight games at their home court, Aquinas Hall. STAC maintained its hold on first place in the ECC and improved to 23-3 overall and 14-1 in the league. Daemen, which lost for the first time since a Jan. 5 non-league loss to St. Michael's College, dropped to 15-9 overall and 12-3 in the ECC. The Wildcats remain in second place in the league standings.
Both teams entered the game ranked regionally in both the Division II Sports Information Directors Association (D2SIDA) East Region poll and the NCAA Division II East Region poll. The Spartans are ranked fourth in the final D2SIDA regional poll released Feb. 11 and are ranked fifth in the first NCAA regional poll released this past Wednesday. Daemen is ranked ninth by the D2SIDA and 10th by the NCAA regional committee.
Both STAC and Daemen have already secured a spot in the upcoming ECC Championship Tournament. The ECC Championship features the top six teams in the final league standings. The top two seeds receive a first-round bye. First round games are slated for campus sites on Wednesday, March 6. The semifinals (Saturday, March 9) and finals (Sunday, March 10) will be played at Hubbell Gymnasium on the campus of the University of Bridgeport. Daemen made its first-ever appearance in the six-team tournament last year.
Daemen has already posted the most wins in a season (15) season since the Wildcats went 26-7 during the 2012-13 season. The 11 straight wins ranked as the longest winning streak for Daemen since the 2007-08 season when it put together a 17-game winning streak.
The 41 points scored marks a season low for the Wildcats, who entered the game averaging 62.5 points. Junior Jordan Heinold (Hamburg, N.Y.) scored a team-high 10 points for Daemen. She made two three-pointers tonight and now stands four triples shy of 100 for her career. Senior Erin Egan (Williamsville, N.Y.) added nine points and six rebounds, while freshman Katie Titus (Penfield, N.Y.) contributed eight points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Titus, who has collected ECC Rookie of the Week honors the last three weeks, was averaging 20.2 points and 10.3 rebounds during the winning streak.
Senior Julia Winnik (New York, N.Y.) paced a balanced STAC attack, as she went 4-of-8 from three-point land and finished with 16 points. Sophomore Emily Preston (Brisbane, Australia) added 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals, while redshirt sophomore Kellyann Averill (Saugerties, N.Y.) chipped in 11 points.
Daemen found itself in unfamiliar territory in the first half, as they trailed 16-8 at the end of the first quarter and were down by 18 points (34-16) at the half. During the 11 game winning streak Daemen trailed for a total 53:20 (out of a possible 440 minutes), and the largest deficit the Wildcats faced during the streak was six points.
Both teams struggled to score early on and STAC held a 7-4 lead five minutes into the game. The Spartans later took a 14-6 lead following a jumper by Preston with a 2:05 left in the quarter, and the hosts went to take a 16-8 lead into the second quarter.
The STAC lead was 18-12 when a three-pointer by Winnik with 7:20 left in the second quarter sparked the hosts on a 10-2 run. A triple by sophomore Zaria Thomas (Elmira, N.Y.) capped the run and gave STAC a 28-14 lead with just over two minutes left before halftime. Daemen answered with a jumper by freshman Mickayla Ivy (Grand Rapids, Mich.), but the Spartans closed out the half with back-to-back triples by Winnik and Preston. Preston's triple, her first three-point attempt of the year, was a buzzer-beater from NBA range.
The Spartans increased their lead to 23 points, 43-20, midway through the third quarter, before the Wildcats got back-to-back buckets by sophomore Tiara Filbert (Batavia, N.Y.) and Titus to make it 42-24. STAC answered with a triple by redshirt junior Ruth Adams (San Diego, Calf.) and the host went on to take a 48-26 lead into the final quarter. The lead ballooned to 29 points, 60-31, midway through the fourth quarter and Daemen came no closer than 23 points the rest of the way.
Daemen shot just 30-percent (8-for-27) from the field in the first half and finished 19-for-54 (35%) overall. The Wildcats missed on all eight three-point attempts in the first half and finished just 3-for-22 from long range overall. Daemen attempted just two free throws and missed then both. STAC shot 43-percent (26-for-61) from the field overall and made 9-of-19 from three-point land. The hosts went 4-of-7 from the charity stripe. Daemen finished with a 40-34 edge in total rebounds, but the Wildcats committed 22 turnovers and the Spartans converted those into a 26-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
Daemen returns to action Sunday (Feb. 24) with a conference game at University of the District of Columbia. UDC (9-16, 6-9 ECC) suffered a 70-50 loss to Roberts Wesleyan College tonight. Daemen, which posted a a 79-47 win over UDC last month, can secure one of the top two seeds in the ECC Tournament with a win on Sunday.
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