Sophie Auer holds the ball in a game against D'Youville

Women's Basketball Wraps Up First Half Of ECC Play Against Roberts On Saturday

1/24/2025 11:14:00 AM

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

FIRST HALF WRAP UP
The Daemen University women's basketball team closes out the first half of East Coast Conference play on Saturday with a game on the road in Rochester at Roberts Wesleyan. The Wildcats come into the game with an 11-6 overall record and a 7-0 record in ECC match ups while the Redhawks are 1-14 overall and 1-6 in conference games.

LOOK BACK AT LAST WEEK
The Wildcats escaped a nailbiter against crosstown rival D'Youville University on Saturday afternoon with a 63-59 victory over the Saints to improve to 11-6 overall and 7-0 in ECC match ups. Daemen remains the only team with an undefeated conference record in the ECC. For the fifth straight game, the Wildcats shot 40% or better from the field, finishing with a 40.7% field goal percentage after going 24-of-59. The Cats were also 12-of-15 from the free throw stripe in the win. Daemen was led offensively by forwards Ne'vaeh Buntley (Rochester, N.Y.) and Claire PIkett (Holland, N.Y.) who scored 19 and 18 points, respectively. Buntley finished with double-digit points for the third game after shooting 61.5% from the field (8-of-15) while adding five rebounds. Pikett was 42.9% from the field (6-of-14) and added a team-high six assists and five rebounds -- three offensive boards -- to her stat line. Coming off the bench, freshman forward Morgan White (New Carlisle, Ind.) posted a season-high eight points in 16 minutes of play after tallying a pair of triples and two free throws while junior forward Cecilia Lapertosa (Whitesboro, N.Y.) led the team with eight rebounds – two offensive boards – and totaled six points.

REGIONAL RANKINGS
Daemen remains ranked eighth in the East Region in the Week 9 Division II College Sports Communicators (D2CSC) Regional Rankings, as released on Tuesday. The East Region consists of teams from the ECC, Northeast 10 Conference and Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The Wildcats have been ranked in the region throughout the year and have been the only ECC team ranked in the region's top-10 this season. Bentley (60 points, 6 first place votes) remains atop the region followed by Holy Family (54 points), Southern Connecticut State (48), Dominican (42) and New Haven (33) in the top five. Assumption (28), Saint Anselm (24), Daemen (23), Jefferson (10) and Pace (5) are the final five teams in the region.

BIG GAME BUNTLEY
Freshman Ne'vaeh Buntley has come out hot in her seven starts this season. The 5-foot-10 freshman forward is averaging 13.8 points per game with a 50.4% field goal percentage her last seven games and has scored in the double digits in five of the seven games, including the past three games where she took 13 shots from the field in each and finished with 17 points (vs. Molloy on Jan. 10), 16 points (vs. Queens on Jan. 12) and 19 points (vs. D'Youville on Jan. 18). Among the active Daemen roster, Buntley is fifth on the team in scoring with 8.3 ppg and fourth on the team in rebounding (4.0 boards/game) while ranking fourth on the team with 16 total steals.

FIRST HALF OF CONFERENCE PLAY
The Wildcats are the only remaining team with an undefeated ECC record in conference play. Daemen comes into their final game of the first half of ECC action with a perfect 7-0 record and ranks second in both offense, averaging 64.6 ppg, and defense, allowing just 53.4 ppg, against conference opponents. The Wildcats also own the largest win margin in conference play (11.1 ppg). Daemen has three players averaging double digit points that rank in the top-10 in scoring in ECC action, with DiCintio ranking sixth in the league and leading Daemen against ECC opponents with 13.7 ppg, PIkett averaging 13.6 ppg and ranking seventh, and Buntley averaging 13.2 ppg to rank 10th against all ECC players in conference games. Lapertosa averages 10.8 rebounds per ECC game (third in the league) and Pikett ranks sixth (7.3 rpg).

UP NEXT
Daemen will host Staten Island (Jan. 31) and District of Columbia (Feb. 2) next weekend at Lumsden Gymnasium.

SCOUTING THE REDHAWKS
Roberts Wesleyan comes into Saturday's game with a 1-14 overall record and 1-6 record in ECC play and are coming off their first win of the season in a 60-51 rout over D'Youville on Wednesday. The Redhawks rank last in the conference in team defense, allowing their opponents to score an average of 72.6 ppg, and are eighth in the league in offense, scoring 55.7 ppg. Roberts is led offensively by 5-foot-8 graduate student Georgia Haverlock who averages 17.5 ppg (second in the ECC). 6-foot senior forward Grace Dow leads the Redhawks with 6.9 rebounds per game and 21 total blocks.

SERIES HISTORY
Daemen's oldest rival, the Wildcats have a 55-25 all-time series record over the Redhawks and have won the past eight meetings between the 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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