ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. – For the eighth-straight game this season, senior guard
Alahna Paige (Rochester, N.Y.) finished in the double-figures, leading all players with 17 points as the Daemen University women's basketball team cruised to a 60-45 win over Molloy University on Friday night.
The Wildcats improve to 5-3 on the year and 2-0 in East Coast Conference play, winning their eighth straight game over the Lions since March of 2020. With the loss, Molloy drops to 2-6 on the year and 0-3 in ECC games.
Daemen continues their first ECC doubleheader of the season with a Sunday matchup against Queens College at 3 PM.
IMPACT PLAYERS
- Paige, who leads the team and ranks second in the ECC in scoring, played all but four minutes in the game and finished with 17 points after knocking down 3-of-5 triples and two field goals and going 4-of-5 from the charity stripe. She pulled down two defensive boards and added three assists and a steal to her stat line.
- Senior guard Gabby McDuffie (Buffalo, N.Y.) totaled her third straight double-digit outing, finishing with 10 points after going 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and adding a free throw. She posted two steals, two rebounds and two assists on the night.
- Sophomore forward Cecilia Lapertosa (Whitesboro, N.Y.) pulled down a team-high seven rebounds and finished with seven points, two blocks and two steals.
- Sophomore guard Claire Pikett (Holland, N.Y.) finished with seven points after going 2-of-5 from the field and knocking down all three free throws while adding five rebounds, four assists and three steals.
- Sophomore guard Shyla Montgomery (Brockton, Mass.) finished 3-of-4 from the field for six points and totaled three assists, one steal and one rebound.
GAME NOTES
- Pikett put the first four points on the board for the Wildcats, and Daemen cruised to a 10-3 through the first eight minutes of play. The Wildcats led 14-5 at the end of the first quarter.
- The Wildcats shot 37.5-percent (6-of-16) in the first, with Pikett leading all players with five first-quarter points, and Montgomery following with four points.
- Molloy put together a comeback in the second, out-scoring the Wildcats 8-5 in the first five minutes of the quarter after knocking down a pair of triples, but Daemen edged the Lions with an 11-10 second to take a 25-15 lead into the half. Paige led the way in the first half with eight points after going 3-of-7 from the field and 2-of-3 from beyond the arc through two quarters.
- Daemen came out of the half firing on all cylinders. The Wildcats banked three-of-three from beyond the three-point line and jumped out to a 39-15 lead after scoring 14 unanswered points. The Wildcats finished off the third quarter with a 45-26 lead after shooting 50-percent from the field (6-of-12) and 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.
- The Lions outscored Daemen 19-15 in the fourth quarter to close the gap but it was not enough as the Wildcats finished with a 15-point advantage over the Lions, 60-45.
- Today's game marked the 22nd all-time meeting between the Wildcats and Lions. Daemen had won seven straight coming into Friday night.
- The Wildcats finished the game shooting 35-percent (22-of-63) from the field and knocked down 7-of-18 (39-percent) from beyond the arc. Molloy shot 32-percent (18-of-57) from the field and only banked four three balls all night. Daemen led for 97-percent of the game.
- Daemen out-rebounded Molloy 44 to 39 on the night, pulling down 14 offensive boards.
Daemen University features the premier 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.
Follow the Daemen women's basketball program on Twitter and Instagram at @DaemenWBB.
