• And so the East Region is down to two teams, Le Moyne and St. Anselm, who will contest the regional final on Monday night in Philadelphia with a place in the Elite Eight on the line. Both teams benefitted from late surges in their Saturday regional semifinal games to win and advance in the bracket. Once again, the report starts chronologically…
• St. Anselm became on the second #7 ever to claim a spot in the East regional final after shading NE10 rival Stonehill, the #6 seed, 59-50. An 11-0 burst in the final three minutes snapped a 46-all tie and propelled the Hawks to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1995, capping a hard-fought contest. St. A’s led for most of the first half with their advantage cresting at 23-15 (2:36) but the Skyhawks ripped off a 7-0 spell to help drag the margin down to 25-22 at the break. The Hawks extended the edge to 29-22 off the top in the third period but Stonehill responded with their most sustained run of the game, a 10-0 stretch that handed them a 32-29 lead. St. A’s recovered and held a 40-38 lead after three frames but the difference stayed between two and four points until a pair of Isabella Santoro (13 points, 11 in the second half) baskets tied the game for the Skyhawks at 46 with 3:38 on the clock. Samantha Ryan (14 points, 15 rebounds, 4 blocks) gave St. Anselm the lead back for good with a bucket (2:44) and Ashley Briggs sank a pair of free throws at the 1:57 mark to widen it to 50-46. The key basket of the game then came from Sara Messler, who beat the shot clock with a trey with 1:17 to go, making it a 53-46 lead and putting the lower seed in command. The basket was Messler’s only score of the half (she ended with 14 points, however) but it came at the right time and St. Anselm closed it out from there with two foul shots each from Peyton Steinman (11 points) and Briggs. Kayla Raymond’s 16 points and 7 rebounds topped the Stonehill scoring but they shot only 29% overall and were only 3-18 from three-point land. The Hawks shot 35% and were 17-19 at the line, enough to prevail and advance. The win avenged two St. Anselm losses to Stonehill during the seasons, much like the fact that they finally beat Bentley a day earlier after three setbacks. Now the Hawks will get the chance to get some payback on Monday, as St. A’s lost to Le Moyne in their only meeting of the campaign.
• Le Moyne, the #4 seed, upended #1 seed/host the University of the Sciences in the other semifinal, 63-56, riding a superlative performance from McKayla Roberts (28 points; 3-5 3FG, 15-17 FT) and a killer 23-4 run which spanned almost eleven second half minutes. The Devils led 27-22 at the end of a see-saw first half, using 7-0 and 7-1 spells to balance off a 10-2 Dolphin run in between. Sciences doubled their halftime lead with 5:37 left in the third period, 38-28, with a Jordan Vitelli (14 points) score capping an 11-6 burst to start the second half. That’s when the LC defense stood tall and put together an 11-1 blitz to tie the game at 39 (:57). Devils star Irisa Ye (25 points; 8-10 FG, 3-3 3FG; 6-8 FT), who was as dynamic as Roberts, ended the third quarter with a trey to give the home team a 42-39 edge but it proved to be a mere speed bump to Le Moyne. The Dolphins tore off a 12-0 binge to kick off the fourth period and take control for good, 51-42 (4:45). The overall 23-4 spell was the decisive segment of the game and although the Devils managed to cut the deficit to five points a few times (53-48, 55-50, 61-56), they came no closer and end a three-year stretch with a glittering 85-13 record and four NCAA tournament wins. Aside of Ye and Vitelli the Devils had a tough night offensively (they had 13 of the team’s 19 baskets) and they also turned the ball over 19 times as a unit. No other Dolphin aside of Roberts netted double digits but they had five players notch between 5-9 points, providing just enough depth to get over the line. LC made their bones at the stripe (27-34 FT, including 15-17 in the fourth quarter), balancing Sciences’ better three-point production (8-4) and overall shooting (Sciences, 48%-44% FG). The Dolphins, who had never won an NCAA tournament game prior to this season, now get a chance to play for a spot in the Elite Eight on Monday.
• There will be regional history made on Monday when Le Moyne and St. Anselm tip off. Neither team has ever reached the Elite Eight, so a new face will represent the region in Columbus… The game will also send a #4 seed (LC) or a #7 seed (St. Anselm) to the Elite Eight for the first time in regional history. The only time a #4 seed reached this stage was in 2015, when Stonehill did it, while the only time a #7 seed made it this far was in 2004, when Bryant did it. Both of those teams lost, though, so the winner on Monday will be the lowest East Regional seed to make an Elite Eight appearance… This will be the first time two teams from the same conference have clashed for the regional crown since 2015 (New Haven and Stonehill) and the fifteenth time the NE10 has supplied both regional finalists…. There will be no repeat regional champion again; for the seventh straight season that’s the case, since Bentley went back-to-back in 2011-2012… For those wondering, Le Moyne won the sole meeting between these two clubs back on January 26, 70-53, in Manchester. McKayla Roberts scored a career-high 33 points to lead the Dolphins to victory while Hawk pivot Shannon Ryan collected 28 points (12-29 FG) and a dozen rebounds.
• Roberts Wesleyan ended their season as the fourth place finisher at the NCCAA Division I national tournament, squandering a 40-26 halftime lead and losing to host Grace College (Indiana), 68-62. The Redhawks never trailed in the first half and scored the last fourteen points of the half over a 4:13 stretch to grab the lead, and they held it to the end of the third period, 51-42. The Lancers (18-16) rallied to score the initial eleven points of the fourth frame to go ahead, 53-51 (6:57). The game stayed close after that but a Brooke Sugg (24 points; 6-12 3FG) trey with 2:07 gave the Lancers the lead for good, 63-60. Vironica Drake (15 points, 8 boards) and Kyannah Stull (12 points) also registered double digits for Grace, which enjoyed a massive 28-7 turnover advantage that they parlayed into a 33-10 plus in points-off-TO’s. Emily Miller (19 points, 10 boards) and Dimitra Gkizani (12 points, 6 caroms; 6-8 FG) led the RWC effort but they lost despite shooting better (46%-36% FG) and owning the glass (45-29), the lack of ball security dooming them to defeat.