HONOLULU, Hawaii – Playing in their first game of the Hoops In Hawaii Classic in the Aloha State, the Daemen University women's basketball team snapped their eight-game win streak in a 68-37 loss to RV Alaska Anchorage University on Friday night in Honolulu. The Wildcats held the Seawolves, who rank fourth in NCAA Division II Women's Basketball in scoring offense with an average of 86.8 points per game, to just 68 points, marking the fourth time that AAU scored 68 or fewer points this season. Daemen moves to 8-4 on the year while the Seawolves improve to 11-2.
Freshman forward
Ne'vaeh Buntley (Rochester, N.Y.) had herself a day and was the sole Wildcat to score in the double-digits tonight. Buntley posted a game and career-high 20 points tonight after tallying a career-high eight field goals on 11 tries. In just her second career start, Buntley added eight rebounds (ties a season high), one block and two steals to her stellar night.
AAU freshman forward Ashlyn Rean led the Seawolves with 18 points and was one of three Alaska Anchorage players to score double-digit points in the game.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The Wildcats scored the first points of the game with a layup from Auer, but from there, the Seawolves scored 13 of the next 15 points over the next five minutes of game play. Joline Raposo (Tampa, Fla.) banked a layup in the final minute and a half of the first to bring the game within eight, 15-7, after the first quarter.
- Alaska Anchorage outscored Daemen 20 to 5 in the second after shooting 43.8% from the field. The Seawolves took a 35-12 advantage into the break.
- The third quarter was much more even. The Wildcats went on a tear in the final five minutes of where they scored 11 of their 13 third-quarter points. Buntley was Daemen's big scorer in the period with seven of their 13 points, including a fastbreak layup in the final seconds of the third. Daemen trailed 25-48 after three.
- Buntley continued her hot streak, opening the fourth quarter with a triple in the first 10 seconds and added a layup one minute later. From there, the Seawolves scored 10 unanswered and held onto a large advantage through to the end of the game to take down the Cats, 68-37.
GAME NOTES
- Daemen entered the game ranked ninth in the East Region in the latest Division II College Sports Communicators (D2CSC) regional poll. The Seawolves are ranked sixth in the West Region and are receiving votes in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Top 25 poll.
- Three of Daemen's four losses this season have come against teams ranked nationally by the WBCA. The Wildcats previously lost to #20/#14 Assumption and #10/#3 Gannon earlier this season.
- A pair of Wildcats earned praise from the East Coast Conference after both scored 17 points in victories over St. Thomas Aquinas College and Mercy University over the weekend. Graduate student Danielle DiCintio (Somers, N.Y.) earned ECC Player of the Week for the first time this season while junior forward Claire Pikett (Holland, N.Y.) was named the ECC Defensive Player of the Week. It marked the second consecutive week that the Wildcats swept Player and Defensive Player of the Week honors. Junior forward Cecilia Lapertosa (Whitesboro, N.Y.) won both awards last week.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats will play their final game in Hawaii on Saturday in a late-night affair for East Coast fans! Daemen will play host Hawaii Pacific University at 5:45 HST, 10:45 ET in HPU's Shark Tank Gymnasium.
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, Instagram at @DaemenWBB
