Top-Seeded Women's Basketball Plays UDC In ECC Semifinals

3/8/2024 11:13:00 AM

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

JUMP BALL
The top-seeded Daemen University women's basketball team will open up the 2024 East Coast Conference Tournament with the first of two semifinal games on Saturday, March 9 with a noon tip-off against fourth-seeded District of Columbia at Lumsden Gymnasium. The Wildcats, who's top seed earned them a bye in the first round of the ECC Tournament, enter the postseason with an 18-7 overall record and earned their fifth consecutive ECC regular season title, finishing the 2023-24 season with a 13-3 record in ECC play. UDC, who topped fifth-seed Staten Island 70-67 in the ECC quarterfinals on Wednesday night, sit at 20-9 on the year and finished fourth in the league with a 12-5 ECC record. The winner of Saturday's semifinal game will play the winner of #2 Mercy and #3 St. Thomas Aquinas in the ECC Championship game on Sunday at noon.

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POLL POSITION
Daemen is ranked sixth in the third and final NCAA East Region poll, released on Wednesday by the NCAA Tournament regional advisory committee. The Wildcats were ranked seventh in the final D2 College Sports Communicators (D2CSC) East Region poll, released on Monday, Feb. 19.

5X REGULAR SEASON CHAMPS
The Wildcats won their fifth consecutive ECC regular season title with a 64-59 victory over Roberts Wesleyan in the regular season finale on Saturday, finishing the 2023-24 season with a 13-3 record in conference play. Daemen has not lost more than three regular season conference games since the 2017-18 season, and two of the Wildcats' three losses this year were within six points (65-71 loss at UDC on Feb. 11, 44-50 loss vs. Mercy on Feb. 18). The Wildcats dropped their first conference game of the year against St. Thomas Aquinas, 59-70 on Jan. 19 which snapped Daemen's 14-game win streak in conference play, the fourth-longest conference win streak in NCAA Division II basketball at the time. With their fifth regular season championship, Daemen is one title away from tying Saint Rose's regular season win streak (1995-2000), with the Golden Knights taking home the title in six consecutive seasons.

DAEMEN IN THE ECC TOURNAMENT
The back-to-back ECC Tournament champion Wildcats have a 7-3 record in the ECC Tournament, and have won three of the last four tournament titles, earning rings in 2020, 2022 and 2023. Daemen has earned four consecutive NCAA Division II Tournament bids from 2020 to 2023, making program history in 2021 with their first ever East Region title and trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.

POSTSEASON HONORS
Three Wildcats were named to the 2023-24 All-East Coast Conference team, with senior guard Alahna Paige (Rochester, N.Y.) becoming the third player in Daemen history to be named Player of the Year after an outstanding senior campaign. Paige led the ECC throughout the year in scoring, averaging 21.7 points per game -- second-most in NCAA Division II women's basketball. In her senior season, the 5-foot-4 guard became the 28th player in program history to score 1,000 career points, and broke the 10-year Daemen school record for single-season triples (78). She leads the nation with 3.36 three pointers per game, and continues to extend the school record, totaling 84 triples while shooting an ECC-high 41% from beyond the arc. Gabby McDuffie (Buffalo, N.Y.), a 5-foot-9 guard, picks up her first all-conference honors, landing on the Second Team after a very successful senior season. A one-two-punch offensively alongside Paige's prowess this season, McDuffie started all 25 games and averaged 10.6 points per game, shooting 36% from the field, 27% from beyond the arc and 73% from the free-throw line, while also averaging 4.4 rebounds per game and 2.2 assists per game. Scoring in the double-digits in 14 games this season, she scored a season-high 23 points against Roberts Wesleyan at home on Dec. 2. In her second season as a Wildcat, McDuffie scored her 1,000th career point this season. Claire Pikett (Holland, N.Y.), a 6-foot sophomore forward, put together a solid sophomore season to earn Third Team All-ECC honors for the first time in her career. Ranking third in scoring on the team behind Paige and McDuffie, the sophomore averages 9.2 points per game. A sharpshooter, Pikett is shooting 51% from the field (91-of-178), 47% from beyond the arc (14-of-30) and ranks second on the team in blocks (26) and fifth in rebounds (4.0 per game). Pikett has started all 25 games for the Wildcats this season, and tallied double-digit points in 13 games on the year, including a career-high 20 points against Staten Island on Jan. 12.

THIS SEASON SO FAR
Daemen (18-7, 13-3 ECC) sat towards the top of the conference in multiple categories throughout the season, leading the ECC in winning percentage (72.0) and field goal percentage (40.6) and ranking second in scoring offense (64.9 points per game), scoring margin (6.6), three point percentage (33.5), free throw percentage (74.3), and scoring defense (58.3). The Wildcats opened the year with a loss to #18 Bentley, but responded with three non-conference wins before traveling down to Florida where they dropped a pair of games to Palm Beach Atlantic and Nova Southeastern. Daemen opened ECC play with a 23-point win over Roberts Wesleyan, and continued their conference domination with a 15-point win at Molloy and a 20-point win at Queens. Over winter break, the Wildcats picked up a big win at Saint Michael's, and picked up the program's first top-five win on Jan. 3, taking down #5 Ferris State 61-56 at home. Daemen dropped their final non-conference game of the season at Indiana (Pa.), but got back in the win column with a 19-point win over Staten Island. The Wildcats snapped a 14-game conference win streak with a 70-59 loss at STAC on Jan. 19, but responded with a four-point comeback victory over Mercy to begin a five-game conference win streak before falling at UDC, 71-65 on Feb. 11. Daemen put together a pivotal 68-64 win over STAC at home on Feb. 16, but could not complete the comeback over Mercy at home on Feb. 18 to drop their third and final conference game of the year, 50-44. The Wildcats have won three straight, topping UDC 82-68, D'Youville 67-51 and claiming their fifth ECC regular season title on Saturday after topping Roberts Welsyean 64-59.

IN THE BANK
In her eighth year at the helm of the Daemen women's basketball team, head coach Jenepher Banker has the Wildcats positioned as the top seed in this weekend's conference tournament for the fourth straight season and ranked sixth in the NCAA Division II East Region poll. This season, Banker notched her 250th career victory with the 80-61 win at D'Youville on Feb. 4. Since the start of the 2019-20 season when Daemen earned their first ECC regular season and tournament titles, Banker's Wildcats have compiled a 97-25 overall record while going 64-10 in ECC play. Banker owns a 138-67 record in her eight seasons at Daemen.

HOME, SWEET HOME
Everyone's goal is to win at home, but Daemen's home court advantage is hard to beat, with the Wildcats going 10-1 at home this season. In Daemen's NCAA Division II era (2015-present), the Wildcats are 77-26 at home (.747). Since the beginning of the 2018-19 season, the Wildcats own a 60-7 record at Lumdsen Gymnasium, including two season with undefeated home records (9-0 in 2019-20, 12-0 in 2022-23). Perfect at home this season until the 55-49 loss to Mercy on Feb. 18, Daemen owned a 23-game home win streak that dated back to the 2021-22 season and was the sixth-longest home court winning streak among Division II women's basketball programs that was snapped with the loss to the Mavs. The Wildcats are even more impressive at home in the postseason, and have not dropped a postseason game at Lumsden since falling to Roberts Wesleyan 59-53 in the 2021 ECC Championship. Daemen owns a 7-1 record in postseason play at home since the 2020-21 season.

SCOUTING THE FIREBIRDS
District of Columbia finished fourth in the ECC regular season after posting a 20-9 overall record while finishing 12-5 in confere ce play. UDC got off to a fast start this season, winning all 11 games easily to open the 2023-24 season with a perfect record before hitting a roadblock in December and January. The fourth-seeded Firebirds narrowly escaped fifth-seed Staten Island 70-67 after erasing a 15-point halftime deficit, outscoring the Dolphins 48 to 30 in the second half to punch their ticket to the ECC semifinals for the first time since 2015-16. As the top scoring offense in the ECC, UDC averages 71.1 points per game, riding off the offense firepower from First Team All-ECC junior guard Destiny Ryles (16.7 ppg) and Third Team All-ECC guards Tori Williams (12.1 ppg) and Latavia Jackson (11.9 ppg). Ryles ranks second in the league in scoring behind only Alahna Paige and leads the league in assists (6.1 per game) and assist/turnover ratio (1.9). Williams ranks eighth in the league defensively, averaging 7 rebounds per game, while Ryles and Aiyana Ellis each average 6.3 boards per game. The Wildcats and Firebirds split the series this season, with UDC picking up the 71-65 victory at home on Feb. 11, but Daemen cruising to an 82-68 win on Feb. 22. Ryles, who averages 32 minutes per game, committed four personal fouls and played just 27 minutes in the Feb. 22 game at Daemen after committing a technical foul, but finished second on the team in scoring that day with 15 points. Junior Laci Johnson, who ranks sixth in the league averaging 1.9 triples per game, led the way for the Firebirds with 16 points after banking 5-of-7 three's in the game against the Wildcats, despite playing just 19 minutes.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats are 11-9 all-time over the Firebirds. After the Wildcats won nine straight over the Firebirds from 2017-2022, Daemen and UDC split the regular season in each of 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.

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