Women's basketball vs Staten Island in ECC finals

ECC Championship Up Next For Top-Seeded Wildcats

3/8/2025 7:25:00 PM

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

CHAMPIONSHIP BALL
For the sixth consecutive season, the Daemen University women's basketball team will play in the East Coast Conference Championship Final! The top-seeded Wildcats will face No. 2 seed College of Staten Island in the championship game on Sunday, March 9 at 12 PM at Daemen's Lumsden Gymnasium. The Wildcats advanced to the championship match up after a 62-44 victory over No. 5 seed Molloy University in the ECC semifinals on Saturday. The victory marked Daemen's largest ECC Tournament win since the top-seeded Wildcats beat No. 4 seed Roberts Wesleyan 84-62 in the 2022 conference semifinals. The Dolphins advanced to their very first ECC Championship berth after a thrilling 60-58 overtime victory over No. 3 seed Mercy University.

SEMIFINAL W
The Wildcats dominated the Lions from start to finish in the semifinal match up on Saturday. Daemen led 19-7 at the end of the first quarter after shooting 47% from the field and extended their lead to 36-17 at the half. The Wildcats cruised to a 62-44 victory over the Lions, improving to 22-4 all-time against the Lions and 14-0 against Molloy at Lumsden Gymnasium. In a game in which the Wildcat defense held the Lions to shooting just 24.2% from the field – a season low shooting percentage for Daemen's opponents – junior forward Cecilia Lapertosa (Whitesboro, N.Y.) broke Katie Titus' 2020 record for single-game rebounds in an ECC Tournament game as she finished with 16 boards. Lapertosa was also one of three Wildcats to tally double-digit points in the win, leading all players with 14 points on the day. Tallying her fifth double-double of the season, Lapertosa on both ends of the court, posting 14 points and a season-tying high 16 rebounds. The junior forward shot 40% from the field, going 6-of-15, finished with seven offensive rebounds and nine defensive boards, accounted for five of Daemen's seven blocks and added one assist and one steal to her stellar stat line. Freshman forward Ne'vaeh Buntley (Rochester, N.Y.) posted her second double-double of the year, totaling 13 points, 14 rebounds – two O boards – two steals and three assists. Buntley earned Third Team All-ECC in her rookie season this year. Sophomore guard Sophie Auer (Lewiston, N.Y.) played 38 of 40 minutes and scored in the double figures for the 12th game this season, totaling 11 points after going 5-of-11 from the field. She added two rebounds, five assists and one block on the day.

20 WINS
With their semifinal victory over Molloy, the Wildcats tallied their fourth consecutive -- and fifth in the NCAA Division II era -- 20-win season. In the four previous 20 win seasons, the Wildcats won both the ECC regular season and tournament titles (2019-20, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24).

DAEMEN IN THE ECC TOURNAMENT
The Wildcats are the 3X reigning ECC Tournament champions and will play in the tournament title game for the sixth straight season. Daemen comes into Sunday's championship game with a 10-3 record in the ECC Tournament and has won seven straight tournament games since the 2020-21 season.

WILDCATS AND DOLPHINS IN THE POSTSEASON
Sunday's championship marks the second postseason meeting between Daemen and Staten Island. The No. 1 seed Wildcats and No. 5 seed Dolphins met for the first time in the 2023 ECC semifinals when CSI made their first appearance in the tournament in their first year of postseason eligibility. Daemen won the matchup in a 64-52 victory en route to their second straight ECC Tournament title.

DAEMEN AND CSI ALL TIME
The Wildcats are 9-0 over the Dolphins since the first meeting in Dec. 2021. Daemen is 5-0 at home against CSI and beat the Dolphins by 14, 50-44, in the last meeting in Lumsden Gymnasium on Jan. 31, 2025.

6X REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS
The Wildcats secured their sixth consecutive ECC regular season title on Feb. 16 with a 61-52 victory over Queens after going 14-0 to open ECC play this season. Daemen closed out the regular season with a 15-1 ECC record, the Wildcats' best conference record since the 2021-22 season when they finished with a 16-1 ECC record. With their sixth straight conference title, Daemen tied Saint Rose for the longest regular season win streak (1995-2000), with the Golden Knights taking home the title in six consecutive seasons.

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.

POLL POSITION
Daemen is ranked second in the East Region in the third and final NCAA regional rankings, released on Wednesday by the regional advisory committee. The East Region consists of the top teams from the ECC, the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, and the Northeast-10 Conference, and the regional rankings are used to determine at-large bids to the East Regional portion of the NCAA Tournament following conference tournaments this weekend. The full 64-team bracket will be released in the 2025 NCAA Selection Show on Sunday, March 9 at 10:30 PM on NCAA.com.

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 DOLPHINS
Staten Island is having their best season since joining the ECC in 2021-22. The Dolphins finished as the No. 2 seed in the conference after compiling a 13-3 ECC record and come into Sunday's championship game with a 21-8 overall record this season. The Dolphins escaped a wild semifinal match up against No. 3 seed Mercy where they trailed in the final seconds of both regular and overtime but a pair of Dolphins drained three's to top the Mavericks 60-58 and advance to the program's first ever ECC Final. CSI finished the regular season as the second ranked team in the conference in offense with 64.3 points per game and third in team defense (58 ppg). Led by the 2025 ECC Player of the Year Jenalyse Alarcon who ranked third this season shooting 49.5% from the field and fourth in scoring (14.4 ppg) and leads the Dolphins with 7.7 rebounds. 5-foot-6 graduate guard Amber Abusbeih (11.1 ppg) and 5-foot-7 junior guard Dana Phelan (10.8 ppg) add to the Dolphins' offensive prowess.

SERIES HISTORY
The Wildcats are 9-0 against the Dolphins all-time.

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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