* Two huge ECC games with playoff implications and storyline galore took place in western New York on Friday, so no delay...
* Brooke Fields (29 points) and Lucy Covley (27 points) went wild in Rochester to lead Roberts Wesleyan to an 81-64 triumph over NYIT, keeping their ECC regular season title hopes alive. Fields (8-16 FG, 6-9 3FG, 7-8 FT) and Covley (9-15 3FG) both established career-high point totals with the latter setting a program standard (and tying the ECC record) for most three-pointers made in a single game. RWC took the lead for good on a Covley trey (appropriately) midway through the first quarter and led 34-26 at the break. NYIT stayed in it and closed the chasm to 46-44 with 4:18 to play in the third period. The Redhawks responded by ending the frame with a 12-2 burst, kicked off (naturally) by a pair of Covley three-pointers. The resulting 58-46 lead was enough space for the home team to relax and they kept the lead in double digits the rest of the way. Nina Vukosavljevic (14 points, 7 assists) and Dina Ragab (10 points, 12 boards) led a quartet of double digit Bears scorers but they never got a handle on the Fields/Covley explosion. RWC was superb from deep (15-27) while NYIT was decent at the other end (7-26 3FG) in an enthralling clash. NYIT holds a one-game lead over UDC for the ECC lead while the Redhawks are just one game behind the idle Firebirds.
* Not far away in Amherst, Sarah Saba (20 points, 10 caroms) keyed Daemen to a 57-53 victory over LIU Post to crawl within a game of an ECC playoff spot. Daemen led for most of the night and at every checkpoint (15-13, 32-26 and 44-41) but the visitors grabbed a 46-44 edge with 8:48 to go on a Melsha Messam (13 points, 12 rebounds) basket. Khea Gibbs tied the game at 51 for LIU Post with 2:15 left but Saba (a hoop at 1:19) and Raeann Stilwell (two FT's at :29) put the Wildcats ahead to stay. Messam cut it to 55-53 with 13 ticks left but Saba canned a pair of foul shots to wrap up Daemen's fifth win in their last six outings. Somara Colon (13 points, 10 boards) also double-doubled for Daemen while Janaysia James (15 points, 10 caroms) did the same for LIU Post. The Wildcats sit one game behind Molloy and St. Thomas Aquinas in the battle for the #5 and #6 seeds but LIU Post has lost four in a row and is offically out of the playoff race.