Women's Basketball To Face Second Seed Mercy In ECC Championship

3/9/2024 5:42:00 PM

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

CHAMPIONSHIP TIME
The top-seeded Daemen University women's basketball team continues their postseason run through the 2024 East Coast Conference Tournament, playing in their fifth consecutive ECC Championship game on Sunday where they will square off against the No. 2 seed Mercy Mavericks at noon. The Wildcats come into the championship game with a 19-7 overall record after topping No. 4 seed District of Columbia 69-66 in the semifinal game Saturday afternoon. Led by 2024 ECC Coach of the Year Scott Lagas, Mercy, who came back from a 17-point first quarter deficit to beat No. 3 seed St. Thomas Aquinas 59-48 in the second semifinal game on Saturday, enters Championship Sunday with a 20-8 overall record.

STAR-STUDDED SEMIFINALS
Down 47-40 going into the final 10 minutes of the game, Daemen leaned on none other than 2024 ECC Player of the Year Alahna Paige (Rochester, N.Y.), who's huge triple in the final three seconds of the game lifted the Wildcats to a 69-66 win over UDC in the ECC semifinals. After shooting 35% (15-of-42) through the first three quarters, the Wildcats went off in the fourth quarter, shooting 9-of-15 from the field (60%) and 2-of-4 from beyond the arc in the final 10 minutes of play. Paige, who entered the fourth with just nine points after going 2-of-11 from the field, scored 14 fourth-quarter points, knocking down both Daemen triples of the final quarter including the game-winner. Senior guard Gabby McDuffie (Buffalo, N.Y.) added 18 points for the Wildcats, with 10 points coming in the final quarter of play. The senior leadership of guards McDuffie and Paige combined for 24 of Daemen's 29 fourth-quarter points.

In the second semifinal of the afternoon, Mercy put together a comeback victory to top STAC 59-48 to punch their ticket to the ECC Championship game for the first time in program history. Down 21-4 to the Spartans after the first quarter, the Mavericks overcame a 19-point deficit by outscoring STAC 55 to 27 in the final three quarters -- holding the Spartans to just nine points through the second and third quarters of play. First Team All-ECC junior forward Jaclyn Stanavich scored 25 points in the win, while graduate guard Katie Wall added 15 points on the day. The Mavericks shot 42% (20-of-47) on the day and held STAC to just 30% from the field (18-of-60) with just one triple (1-of-21).

CHAMPIONSHIP MENTALITY
Advancing to their fifth straight ECC Championship game, the back-to-back ECC Tournament champion Wildcats have an 8-3 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. Daemen is looking to win three straight ECC Tournament titles for the first time in ECC history since Saint Rose's six consecutive tournament titles (1995-2000).

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 last 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.

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.

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.

NCAA DIVISION II REGIONAL COMMITTEE -- EAST REGION POLL -- WEEK 3 (MARCH 6)

	OVERALL	REGION	CONFERENCE
1. Assumption	24-4	24-4	NE-10
2. Bentley	24-5	24-5	NE-10
3. Saint Rose	21-6	21-6	NE-10
4. Franklin Pierce	20-9	20-9	NE-10
5. Jefferson	27-1	27-1	CACC
6. DAEMEN	18-7	17-5	ECC
7. Southern New Hampshire	17-10	17-10	NE-10
8. Mercy	19-8	19-6	ECC
9. Southern Connecticut	18-12	18-12	NE-10
10. Pace	18-12	18-12	NE-10

WHAT'S AT STAKE
A win in the ECC Championship game will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament, and the Wildcats are looking to go dancing for the fifth straight year. Daemen is 4-3 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, going 2-1 in both 2021 and 2022. The Wildcats advanced to the East Region Tournament in 2023 but fell to Jefferson in the quarterfinals.

THE 2023-24 SEASON AT A GLANCE
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 98-25 overall record while going 64-10 in ECC play. Banker owns a 139-67 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 11-1 at home this season. In Daemen's NCAA Division II era (2015-present), the Wildcats are 78-26 at home (.747). Since the beginning of the 2018-19 season, the Wildcats own a 61-7 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 an 8-1 record in postseason play at home since the 2020-21 season.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS
Playing in their best season since 1992, the No. 2 seed Mercy Mavericks enter Championship Sunday with a 20-8 record on the year and advance to the ECC Championship final for the first time in program history. The winners of 10-straight games (the program's longest streak since 1985 and first 20-win season since 1984-85), Mercy put together an electric semifinal victory on Saturday, beating St. Thomas Aquinas 59-48 and handing the Spartans their second straight loss in one week. After winning ECC Coach of the Year on Wednesday, head coach Scott Lagas has his team playing some of their best ball when it counts. On this 10-game win streak, the Mavericks are averaging 65.6 points per game, and the ECC's top ranked defense has only allowed an average of 52.4 points per game over in that same time frame. Led by a pair of First Team All-ECC players in 5-foot-6 graduate guard Katie Wall who averages 16.5 ppg (third in the league) and 5-foot-8 junior forward Jaclyn Stanavich who averages 15.8 ppg (fifth in the ECC), sophomore forward Angelina Barrera was named the ECC's Defensive Player of the Year and ranks third on the team with 10.5 ppg, a team-high 8.5 rebounds per game (third in the ECC) and 30 blocks.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats and Mavericks split the regular season, with Daemen picking up a 55-51 comeback victory at Mercy on Jan. 21, and the Mavs getting revenge with a 50-44 win at Daemen on Feb. 18, marking the first home loss for the Wildcats since February of 2021. In both games this season, the Wildcats and Mavericks played close and the games both came down to the wire. Where the Wildcats benefited from free throws down the stretch in the first meeting in January, it was the Mavericks won the game on free throws in the second matchup, scoring six points from the charity stripe in the final minute and a half of the game. Daemen's loss to Mercy snapped a 16-game win streak for the Wildcats over the Mavericks, a streak that dated back to Feb. 13, 2016.

This will be the first ever postseason meeting between these two teams.

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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