Claire Pikett drives for a layup against UB

Geoff Schneider

Women's Basketball Opens Season At Redhawks Classic

11/7/2024 4:00:00 PM

By: CONTACT: Mary Margaret Johnson, Director of Athletics Communications | mmjohnso@daemen.edu

BACK IN ACTION
The Daemen University women's basketball team is back! The defending 2024 East Region Champs hit the road this weekend to open up the season at the Redhawks Classic in Rochester, N.Y. for the seventh time in eight years where they will play two games at the tournament. The Wildcats will take on Felician University in their season opener on Friday, Nov. 8 at 5:30 PM and Assumption University on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 1:30 PM in a rematch of the East Region semifinal game from a season ago.

REGIONAL RANKINGS
The Wildcats are ranked fourth in the East Region in the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) Preseason Rankings, as released on Monday afternoon. The East Region consists of teams from the East Coast Conference, Northeast 10 Conference and Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The Wildcats were ranked in the East Region poll throughout the season in 2023-24. Daemen is also receiving votes in the D2CSC Women's Basketball Top-25 National Poll, released on Tuesday.

A LOOK BACK AT LAST SEASON
The Wildcat women posted a 23-8 overall record en route to their second East Region title. Daemen went 13-3 in ECC play and earned their third consecutive ECC Tournament title and fifth straight ECC regular season championship and kept the victories alive throughout the playoffs, taking down No. 3 seed Saint Rose 52-47 in the regional quarterfinals, No. 2 seed Assumption 68-58 in the semifinals, and No. 4 seed Jefferson 69-62 in the regional championship game. The Wildcats fell to No. 2 seed Texas Woman's University in the Elite Eight in St. Joseph, Mo.

WHO'S GONE
Daemen is without three of the winningest Wildcats in program history who were all lost to graduation in Natalie Angeletti, Kaytlyn Matz, and D2CCA Second Team All-American and D2CCA All-Region Player of the Year Alahna Paige, who also was named the 2024 ECC Player of the Year after an outstanding senior campaign where she finished as ranked second in total three-point field goals and three-point field goals made per game (3.26) among the Division II national leaders. Paige set a Daemen record with 101 made three-point field goals and totaled 666 points (fourth-most in program history and first in Daemen's Division II era). The Wildcats also graduated Gabby McDuffie, who earned Second Team All-ECC honors in 2024.

NEW LOOK CATS
Seven players return for the Wildcats, including 2024 Third Team All-ECC forward Claire Pikett (Holland, N.Y.) and Daemen's top rebounder Cecilia Lapertosa (Whitesboro, N.Y.). Pikett put together a standout sophomore campaign, starting all 31 games and ranked third in scoring (8.4 ppg) and rebounding (4.1 per game). Lapertosa averaged 6.8 boards per game and led the Wildcats with 38 total blocks last season. The Wildcats added seven players in the off-season, five freshmen and two transfers, to bring the roster to 15. Daemen added graduate transfer Danielle DiCintio (Somers, N.Y.) who spent her undergraduate career at Roberts Wesleyan and earned Third Team All-ECC honors a season ago after leading the ECC in three-point percentage (40.3).

EXHIBITION RESULTS
The Wildcats faced three Division I programs in one week in their three exhibition games. Daemen fell at the University at Buffalo in the first exhibition (38-82) of the season before facing ACC powerhouse Syracuse (50-90) and rounded out the week with a loss at St. Bonaventure (57-71). Over the course of the three games, all 14 players on Daemen's team saw playing time, including all five freshmen.

BANK ON IT
Head coach Jenepher Banker, the 2021, 2022 and 2023 East Coast Conference Coach of the Year, will embark on her ninth season as the head women's basketball coach at Daemen in 2024-25 as she continues to build Western New York's premier NCAA Division II program. Banker was introduced in 2016 as the fourth head coach in the modern era of the program and has since led the Wildcats to a 143-68 overall record and a 96-32 mark in ECC play. The veteran mentor has presided over the program's resurgence in recent years, leading the Wildcats to five-straight ECC regular season championships (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), four ECC tournament titles (2020, 2022, 2023, 2024), five NCAA tournament berths (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) and the program's first two NCAA Tournament East Region championships (2021, 2024). From early January of 2019 through the end of the 2022-23 season, Banker's Wildcats have gone 116-28 (.811).

UP NEXT
The Wildcats will remain on the road as they travel to take on Gannon University on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7 PM in Erie, Pa. Gannon also advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight a season ago.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN FALCONS
Felician is coming off an 11-15 overall record where all 11 of their wins came in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) play, touting an 11-5 conference record to advance to the CACC Tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 season. The Golden Falcons averaged 62.4 points per game last year, shooting 38.3% from the field and 24% beyond the arc while out-rebounding their opponents 45 to 37 on average. Eight players return for Felician from last season's team including the team's top two scorers in 5-foot-11 sophomore forward Ane Valle and 6-foot sophomore forward Katherine Ritchie. Valle averaged 15.4 ppg and led the team shooting 50% from the field while Ritchie averaged 10.9 ppg and shot 40.6% from the field last year.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats are 5-0 all-time against Felician.

SCOUTING THE GREYHOUNDS
Perennial powerhouse Assumption put together another solid season in 2023-24, boasting a 25-6 overall record while going 18-4 in Northeast-10 play. The Greyhounds finished as the runners-up in the NE-10 and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the second consecutive season where they fell to the Wildcats, 58-68, in the East Region semifinals. Assumption returns 11 players from their 23-24 roster, including 5-foot-10 graduate student guard Molly Stokes who earned 2024 All-America Honorable Mention and led the Greyhounds offensively with 15.4 ppg after shooting 50.7% from the field and 43.7% from beyond the arc. 5-foot-11 senior forward Marina Callahan ranked second on the team in scoring with 13.5 ppg while shooting 50.5% from the field and led the team with 36 blocks. 6-foot senior forward Kaijhe Hall led the Greyhounds at the boards with 7.8 rebounds per fame and was the third player to average double-digits on the year (10.7 ppg) while leading the team with a 55% shooting percentage.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats and Greyhounds are 1-1 in meetings, both of which came in the NCAA Division II East Region Tournament over the past two seasons.

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.

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