AMHERST, N.Y. – For the sixth consecutive season, the Daemen University women's basketball team is headed to the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Tournament after collecting their fourth straight East Coast Conference tournament title with a 76-68 victory over No. 2 seed College of Staten Island on Sunday afternoon. The eight regional tournaments begin later this week across the country, and the full 64-team NCAA tournament bracket was announced late this evening in a selection show on NCAA.com.
The tournament field is broken down into eight regions, each consisting of eight teams each. Daemen is one of 23 conference champions to earn an automatic qualifying bid to the tournament. The Division II Women's Basketball Committee selects the remaining 41 at-large bids.
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.
Game times, ticket and broadcast information for the East Region Championship will be announced later this week.
Daemen comes into their sixth straight regional tournament with a 21-7 record. The Wildcats won their sixth consecutive ECC regular season title, tying the conference record for consecutive regular season championships held by Saint Rose from 1995-2000, and went on to take their fourth straight ECC tournament title – and fifth in six seasons – over the weekend at Lumsden Gymnasium. As the top seed in the tournament, the Wildcats 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.
Since punching their ticket to the program's first ever NCAA Tournament in the 2019-20 season that was canceled due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Daemen has been a staple in the postseason, advancing to the "Big Dance" each year since. In the past five seasons, the Wildcats have advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight twice (2021, 2024) and are the reigning East Region Champions after claiming the program's second title in four seasons as the No. 6 seed last season at Bentley.
Winners of the eight regional tournaments will advance to the NCAA Elite Eight which is slated for March 24 at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, Pa. The Final Four will be held on March 26, and the 2025 NCAA Division II National Championship will be on March 28.
A full opening-round preview will be posted to daemenwildcats.com later this week.
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.
Follow the Daemen women's basketball program on Twitter and Instagram at @DaemenWBB.
