Keuka Picks Up Eighth Conference Win in Last Nine Games

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Sophomore Danielle Gravel (Sidney, NY/Sidney) scored 17 points with three steals and senior Morgan Engelbert (Elmira, NY/Thomas Edison) added eight points and six rebounds in a 60-45 Senior Day win over Wells College Saturday afternoon inside of the Weed Physical Arts Center.

Junior Mariah Mouzon (Elmira, NY/Elmira Free Academy) added 10 rebounds and six points while sophomore Casey Chamberlain (Perry, NY/Perry) added eight points and seven rebounds to lead the Storm (16-5, 14-3 North Eastern Athletic Conference) to its eighth win in the last nine NEAC games.

Keuka must wait until the regular season concludes Sunday to learn its postseason fate. The Storm, the defending NEAC postseason champions, is guaranteed a playoff berth, but it remains to be seen when and where Keuka will play next.

The top three teams from each division qualify for the NEAC postseason tournament, which starts Tuesday with a pair of first-round games before the semifinals on Saturday and the championship game on Sunday.

The Storm is currently the second seed in the North. If first-place SUNYIT (20-4, 14-2 NEAC) defeats Wilson (2-20, 2-15) Sunday afternoon, SUNYIT would clinch first-place and Keuka would earn the No. 2 seed in the North. Under that scenario, Keuka would host the North's No. 3 seed, SUNY Cobleskill (14-11, 10-7), at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in a first-round game inside the Weed.

If the Storm prevails against Cobleskill it would then face the South's No. 1 seed, Penn State-Harrisburg, in a Saturday afternoon semifinal at Harrisburg, PA.

The other scenario is SUNYIT falls to Wilson on Sunday, meaning Keuka would earn the North's No. 1 seed based on sweeping the two regular-season games from the Wildcats. If that occurs, Keuka would earn a bye into Saturday's semifinals and would await the winner of the 2/3 matchup in the South, featuring St. Elizabeth (16-9, 13-5) and Lancaster Bible College (14-11, 11-7).

Be sure to check KeukaStorm.com on Sunday night for a breakdown of the Storm's postseason path as Keuka goes for a second straight NCAA Division III tournament appearance and third trip in five years.

Facing Wells (8-17, 6-11), Gravel reached double-figures for the 14th time in 19 games, and had her 11th game with 15-plus points. Gravel scored Keuka's first two baskets and sophomore Taylor Szwec (Candor, NY/Candor) made a jumper and a layup to stake the Storm to an 8-3 lead six minutes in.

Leading 8-6, the Storm scored the next nine points as Chamberlain made a pair of layups, Gravel knocked down a '3' and freshman Erica Pendrak (Utica, NY/New York Mills) made a layup for a 17-6 edge with 9:26 remaining in the opening half.

Wells didn't score its 10th point of the half until Jessilyn Artaho-Aki hit a jumper with 5:19 remaining in the half and went into the locker room trailing 31-15. The Express began the second on an 8-0 run to claw within 31-23 before the Storm went on a 10-2 run to take a 41-25 lead on Szwec's '3' with 13:37 remaining.

The Storm maintained at least a 13-point lead the rest of the way and led by as many as 22, 58-36 when freshman Amanda Kubitz (Spencerport, NY/E.J. Wilson) sunk a pair of free throws with 3:14 remaining.

Ashley Roser, the NEAC's leading rebounder and second-leading scorer entering play, finished with a game-high 20 points and 19 rebounds for the Express, which shot 5-for-28 (17.9 percent) in the first half and 17-for-59 (28.8 percent) for the game.

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