Women's Game Recaps #69 - 2/23/18

 Women’s Game Recaps #69 – 2/23/18

• The post season has begun with a pair of NE10 first round games and there was also action in the ECC with two key Friday night games that have playoff positioning implications all over them. Let’s start the recap with tournament games in Garden City and Manchester…

• Defending NE10 tournament champion Adelphi sprinted to a quick 13-0 lead against Merrimack and kept the Warriors chasing all night long en route to a 66-50 first round tournament victory. Natalie Fekula’s career day (16 points, 19 rebounds, both personal-highs) topped the ticket for the Panthers, who didn’t allow MC to score until there were almost seven minutes played. AU led 31-17 at the half and 50-37 after three frames, basically trading points for the final 32-plus minutes. The Warriors came as close as nine points in the final stanza but couldn’t really threaten the home team and finish up at 15-12. Simone Hobdy (16 points) and Niajah Morgan (12 points) also played well for the winners, who had the edge in most team stat areas, especially off the glass (47-28), at the line (AU 17-25; MC 3-4 FT) and from the field (45-34%). Merrimack, which shot a drab 3-22 from three-point land, had Denia Davis-Stewart (14 points), Lindsay Werner (12 points) and Karlee Alves (10 assists) atop the stat sheet. Adelphi will visit overall top seed Stonehill in a quarterfinal match on Sunday.  

• Kylie Lorenzen (26 points, 16 rebounds, 11-19 FG) went off for Southern New Hampshire in the Penmen’s 75-62 first round NE10 playoff win over visiting College of Saint Rose. A solid first half staked SNHU to a 32-24 halftime lead and they pushed it to 55-43 going into the final period. The Golden Knights managed to rally and sliced the gap to 67-62 with 2:37 left but didn’t score again. Lorenzen had five points in an 8-0 closing flourish for the Penmen to send them into a Sunday semifinal clash at Southern Connecticut. Jennifer Shelp (14 points) and Brianna Camara (11 points) lent depth for SNHU, which out-shot Saint Rose (47-38%) and smoked them on the glass (53-25), the latter stat leading to 27 more field goal attempts (76-49). Ashley Vanderwall (15 points), Takora McIntyre (13 points), Karissa Birthwright (11 points) and Isa Vara de rey (10 points) filled out a balanced Golden Knight scoring chart to no avail.

• LIU Post secured a share of the ECC regular season title and claimed the #1 seed in the upcoming league tournament thanks to a 74-61 decision over Daemen. Sasha Patterson (16 points, 11 rebounds), Mikaiya Moore and Kylie Garrett (12 points apiece) did the job for the Pioneers, who have now won seven outings in a row. The home team surged to a 22-11 lead after one frame and held a 17-point advantage late in the first half before settling for a 36-27 lead at the break. A 7-0 start to the third period made it a 43-27 contest and the closest the Wildcats came thereafter was 56-51 with 6:06 to go after an 11-3 run. The Pioneers responded to that with an identical spree (67-54, 2:13) to ice the victory. Sarah Saba (20 points, 7 boards), Carina Pringle and Sarah Young (11 points each) kept Daemen alive but a rebound deficit (LIU Post, 43-29) and a dearth of free throws (LIU Post 18-24; Daemen 5-8 FT) hurt. The Wildcats can still host a first round ECC playoff game if they can win at NYIT on Sunday (and, ironically, if that happens they’d host the Bears in the tournament) but a loss means a road game at either NYIT or Roberts Wesleyan

• Roberts Wesleyan made sure of third place in the ECC with a 55-44 victory at NYIT, in the process denying the Bears a chance to clinch a home game in the league playoffs. Emily Miller (12 points, 12 boards), Necedah James and Taya Andrews (11 points each) keyed RWC in this taffy-pull while Nina Vukosavljevic (16 points) and Maia Hood (11 boards) were NYIT’s top producers. The Redhawks led most of the night, arriving at the intermission ahead, 22-16, and widening the gap to 41-30 after three frames. The Bears were unable to stitch together a real push in the last quarter and sustained the loss. Roberts Wesleyan shot better overall (38-28%) in a game that saw both teams toss rocks from deep (each made five but they went 10-47 combined from three-point land). RWC will host either Queens or Daemen in the ECC first round next week while NYIT will be either the #4 or #5 seed, depending on their Sunday result against Daemen.