Women's Basketball | 3/14/2025 10:22:00 PM
NCAA Division II East Region Semifinals: No. 2 seed Daemen Wildcats vs. No. 3 seed Holy Family Tigers | Saturday, March 15 | 5 PM | Waltham, Mass. | Barbara Stevens Court (Dana Center)
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Daemen Links: Roster |
Schedule |
Stats |
Record: 22-7
Holy Family Links: Roster |
Schedule |
Stats |
Record: 25-6
Championship Central |
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SURVIVE AND ADVANCE
The Daemen University women's basketball season continues!! For the second straight season and fourth time in program history, the No. 2-seeded Wildcats advanced to the NCAA Division II East Region semifinals where they will face No. 3 seed Holy Family University on Saturday, March 15 at 5 PM in the first of two regional semifinals. Daemen comes into the semi's after a commanding 70-48 quarterfinal victory over No. 7 seed Jefferson University, while the Tigers advanced to the semifinals after topping No. 6 seed 67-53 in the first game of the East Region tournament on Friday afternoon.
QUARTERFINAL VICTORY
Death, taxes, and
Jenepher Banker's Wildcats in March. Daemen took down No. 7 seed Jefferson University 70-48 in the quarterfinal round on Friday afternoon to punch their ticket back to the regional semifinals. The Wildcats, who are the reigning East Region champions, improve to 22-7 overall and will face No. 3 seed Holy Family University in the semifinals on Saturday at 5 PM. Three Wildcats,
Claire Pikett (Holland, N.Y.),
Cecilia Lapertosa (Whitesboro, N.Y.)
Sophie Auer (Lewiston, N.Y.) scored in the double digits and helped lead Daemen to shooting 50% (30-of-60) from the field and 34% (8-of-23) beyond the arc in the victory. Daemen scored 70+ points for the 10th game this season and shot 50% or better for the second straight game and fourth time this season. Pikett scored a career-high 22 points in the victory after going 10-of-14 from the field, Lapertosa totaled 18 points and 14 rebounds for her third straight and sixth double-double of the season, and Auer finished with 13 points in the win. It marked the fourth consecutive season that the Wildcats and Rams met in the East Region Tournament. Daemen is 3-1 all-time against Jefferson and has won the last two meetings (2024 East Region Championship, 2025 East Region quarterfinals).
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 9-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament play and 9-2 in the East Region since the 2021 postseason. The Wildcats 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.
HOTTEST IN THE SPRING
Daemen has won 14 of their last 15 games since resuming ECC play on Jan. 10. The Wildcats rode a 10 game win streak into the second to last regular season game of the year where they dropped an 11-point match up to crosstown rival D'Youville on Feb. 22. Over the 15 games since Jan. 10, Daemen is averaging 65 points per game while holding their opponents to an average of 50 points per game.
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 62.3 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. Pikett and Buntley have led the Wildcats offensively in seven games this season while DiCintio has 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 TIGERS
The Wildcats and Tigers meet for the second time this season and for the first time in the postseason. Daemen beat Holy Family 55-53 in an incredible game on the Tigers' home court in the first meeting on Dec. 1 earlier this season. It marked the first time Daemen beat Holy Family in the four-game history of the two teams. After putting together a very successful 2024-25 season, #22 Holy Family came into the NCAA Division II Tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Tigers punched their ticket with the automatic bid from winning the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Tournament title for the first time since 2015 in a 77-68 victory over top-seeded Jefferson. Holy Family advanced to the regional semifinals after topping No. 6 seed Assumption 67-53 in the quarterfinals on Friday afternoon after putting together an explosive second half. Averaging 67 points per game while allowing their opponents to score just 56 ppg this season, the Rams are led by 5-foot-10 junior guard
Taylor Hinkle who is averaging a double-double per game (12.4 points, 10.4 rebounds). 5-foot-7 junior guard
Kaelah Carter ranks second on the team with 9.1 ppg and is one of Holy Family's two deep threats, shooting 37.6% beyond the arc this season. Carter led the Tigers with 15 points in the win over Assumption on Friday. 5-foot-9 senior guard
Jessica Reipe leads the Tigers with 61 triples this season while shooting 35.5% beyond the arc. 6-foot-1 graduate center
Carolyn Prevost leads the team in shooting 50.8% from the field this season.
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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