The Daemen women's basketball team celebrates ECC Tournament title

Geoff Schneider

No. 2 Seed Women's Basketball Opens East Regional Against No. 7 Seed Jefferson

3/13/2025 3:22:00 PM

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

TOURNAMENT TIME
The Daemen University women's basketball team returns to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the sixth consecutive season and opens up tournament play with the East Region Quarterfinals on Friday at 2:30 PM. The Wildcats, who garnered the No. 2 seed in the East Region after collecting their fourth straight East Coast Conference Tournament Championship over the weekend, will face No. 7 seed Jefferson University in the first round of the regional. The East Region Tournament is being hosted by top-seeded Bentley Falcons and all games will be held at the Dana Center on the campus of Bentley University in Waltham, Mass.

EAST REGION MATCH UPS
Daemen comes into the East Region as the No. 2 seed and will face No. 7 Jefferson University of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference in the quarterfinal match up on Friday, March 14. The East Region Tournament will be held at the Dana Center on the campus of Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. As the top seed in the East, Bentley will host the entire regional tournament. Additional first round match ups include No. 1 Bentley of the Northeast-10 Conference taking on No. 8 University of New Haven of the NE-10, No. 4 Saint Anselm College of the NE-10 taking on No. 5 Southern Connecticut State University of the NE-10, and No. 3 Holy Family University of the CACC taking on No. 6 Assumption University of the NE-10. As a whole, five teams teams will represent the NE-10, two teams represent the CACC and Daemen is the sole team representing the ECC in the East Regional.

ECC CHAMPIONS
The Wildcats come into their sixth straight regional tournament after securing their fourth consecutive -- and fifth in the last sixth seasons -- ECC Tournament title over the weekend. As the top seed in the tournament, Daemen cruised to a 62-44 victory over No. 5 seed Molloy in the ECC semifinals on Saturday and advanced to their sixth straight conference championship game. Daemen faced No. 2 seed Staten Island in the title game and despite trailing the Dolphins after three quarters, the Wildcats opened up the fourth quarter on a 12-4 run and finished with a 76-68 win over CSI to win their eighth straight ECC Tournament game since the 2021 championship game. Junior forward Cecilia Lapertosa (Whitesboro, N.Y.) scored a double-double in both conference tournament games and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the ECC Tournament, an award won by a Daemen player for the fourth straight season. Sophomore guard Sophie Auer (Lewiston, N.Y.) and freshman forward Ne'vaeh Buntley (Rochester, N.Y.) were both named to the ECC All-Tournament team as well.

DAEMEN IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
The Wildcats are dancing for the sixth straight year after earning the ECC's automatic bid with the tournament championship victory. Daemen is 7-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament play and were 3-1 in the tournament last season after winning the program's second East Region title and advancing to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight last season. Daemen won the program's first ever East Region title and trip to the Elite Eight in 2021, and made it back to the East Region championship game where they fell in a two-point heartbreaker to Pace in the 2022 tournament. The Wildcats advanced to the East Regional in 2023 but fell to No. 6 Jefferson in the quarterfinals. In their successful 2024 postseason run, the Wildcats entered the eight-team regional as the No. 6 seed and put on a clinic, taking down No. 3 seed Saint Rose (52-47) in the quarterfinals, No. 2 seed Assumption (68-58) in the semifinals and No. 4 seed Jefferson (69-62) in the regional championship game to take home the hardware. Playing in the program's second Elite Eight, the Wildcats were the No. 7 seed and fell to No. 2 seed Texas Woman's University to end the 2023-24 season with a 23-8 overall record.

POSTSEASON AWARDS
Three Wildcats were named to the 2024-25 All-ECC Team along with head coach Jenepher Banker earning the title of ECC Coach of the Year for the fourth time in her career. Junior guard Claire Pikett (Holland, N.Y.) earns First Team All-Conference honors for the first time in her career after starting all 26 games and putting together a very successful junior campaign, scoring in the double-figures in 16 games and averaging 11 points per game while shooting 34.9% from the field and 31.7% beyond the arc. Pikett ranks second on the team at the boards, averaging 6.3 rebounds per game and is third in the ECC with 1.9 blocks per game (49 total) which ranks 26th in NCAA Division II women's basketball. She also ranks sixth in the league with 2.0 steals/game (51 total). Graduate student guard Danielle DiCintio (Somers, N.Y.) was named to the All-ECC Second Team after making an immediate impact on the Wildcats in her first season on the team. DiCintio led the Wildcats and ranks eighth in the league in scoring, averaging 12.4 points per game while shooting 38.8% from the field. The league leader in three pointers per game (2.8), DiCintio ranks third in the league with a 36.6% three-point field goal percentage after going 74-of-202 from beyond the arc. She has shot in the double-digits in 16 games this season, including scoring a season-high 22 points three separate times (vs. Assumption on Nov. 9, vs. Chestnut Hill on Nov. 21 and vs. D'Youville on Feb. 22). She tallied her 1,000th career point this year. Ne'vaeh Buntley (Rochester, N.Y.), a 5-foot-10 freshman forward, earns Third Team All-ECC honors after a stellar freshman campaign. Making 15 starts but appearing in all 26 games for the Wildcats, Buntley surged in the second half of the year and finished the regular season ranked third on the team in scoring, averaging 9.9 points per game along with 5.4 rebounds per game, also good for third on the team. The freshman phenom is shooting an impressive 40.6% from the field and added 23 triples over the regular season. Buntley scored in the double-figures in 12 games this season and dropped a career-high 23 points against Molloy on Feb. 14 after going 8-of-12 from the field and 5-of-8 beyond the arc.

BALANCED OFFENSE
All five of Daemen's starters are averaging 9 or more points per game this season and have helped lead the Wildcats to score an average of 62.1 points per game. In Daemen's ECC Championship game against Staten Island, all five starters tallied double-digit points, marking the first time this season that happened for the Wildcats. Buntley has led the Wildcats offensively in seven games this season while DiCintio and Pikett have both led the Cats in six games this season, Lapertosa four games and Auer three.

REGULAR SEASON RECAP
After graduating four seniors from the 2024 Elite Eight team, the young group of Wildcats started off the season slow, 0-3 with losses to a pair of nationally ranked teams in #20/#14 Assumption and #11/#3 Gannon, with just one starter and three players that saw playing time last season. Daemen got their footing after their trio of losses and rattled off an eight-game win streak, including big wins over regionally ranked Saint Anselm, 55-49, and Holy Family, 55-53, and opened up ECC play with a 4-0 record. The Wildcats then traveled to the Hawaiian Islands over winter break to play two games in the Hoops In Hawaii Classic where they fell against RV Alaska Anchorage, host Hawaii Pacific, and in their return to Lumsden Gymnasium, dropped their third straight game to RV Indiana (Pa.). That would be the final losing streak the Wildcats would go on this season. Daemen put together a 10-game win streak in conference play and won their sixth consecutive ECC regular season title, and after dropping one ECC match against crosstown rival D'Youville, the Wildcats closed out the season with a 29-point victory over Roberts Wesleyan to end the year with a 19-7 overall record and 15-1 record in ECC play. The Wildcats lead the league in team defense (55.7 ppg, 24th in NCAA Division II women's basketball) while averaging 61.5 ppg offensively on the year.

SCOUTING THE RAMS
The Wildcats will face a familiar foe in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. For the fourth consecutive year, Daemen and Jefferson will square up in the East Regional, with the Rams leading the postseason series 3-1 all-time. Daemen got the last win over the Rams in the 2024 East Region Championship in a 69-62 victory to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight for the second time in program history on the floor of the Dana Center. Jefferson comes into the 2025 East Region Tournament as the No. 7 seed after falling to (No. 3 seed) #25 Holy Family in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference finals, 68-77. Winners of the CACC South after going 14-2 in conference play this season, the Rams enter the NCAA tournament after another successful season with a 24-7 overall record. Jefferson went 4-0 this season against ECC teams, winning regular season match ups against Molloy, Queens, STAC and UDC this year. The Rams return three of their five starters from 2023-24 team, including the 2025 CACC Player of the Year and D2CCA First Team All-Region player Cassie Murphy who leads the Rams 15.8 points per game and averages 9.8 rebounds per game. Murphy, a 6-foot center/forward, is averaging 20.8 ppg over the last five games, including scoring a season-high 32 points and 15 rebounds against Felician in the CACC quarterfinals. 5-foot-7 senior guard Emily Kuczynski earned Second Team All-CACC in a year where she averaged 13.8 ppg, 11th in the conference, while being fourth in the CACC as she averaged a 37.1 three-point percentage. 5-foot-10 sophomore guard Emily Spratt ranks third on the team with an 11.5 ppg and 5.4 rebounds/game average. The Rams return their top scorer of 2023-24 in 5-foot-11 senior forward Sam Yencha who was out for the majority of the season but has since returned to the lineup and averages 10.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.

Daemen 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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