Buffalo, NY - The D'Youville Women's Basketball Team made history Wednesday evening as they defeated conference rival Medaille for the first time in school history by the score of 69-65.
Senior Bridget Andrews (Amherst, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) started off the game for the Spartans by knocking down back-to-back threes, giving the team an early 6-3 lead. Medaille pulled the game back within reach as they were down by 2 with under 13 minutes remaining in the first half. D'Youville's offense came to life as the Mavericks pulled close, going on a 12-0 run with 4 points coming from Alexis Smith (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) in that stretch.
Medaille answered with 12 unanswered points of their own to close the gap to 2. Free throws from Andrews and senior Jillian Piniewski (West Seneca, NY/West Seneca) gave D'Youville a 26-22 lead heading into halftime.
Both team's came out trading baskets, but 6 points from Smith gave D'Youville a 10 point lead with a tad under 3 minutes gone by in the second half. A free throw from Amanda Marcely (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Grimes) gave D'Youville an 11 point lead, their largest of the second half. Danette Laguerre (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech) created a turnover from the Mavericks, stealing the ball and taking it coast-to-coast for a layup, giving D'Youville a big jolt of energy.
The Mavericks closed the Spartan lead to 3 with a shade under 5 minutes remaining in the game, but Andrews made a free throw to make it a 2 possession game. Freshman Awilda Murphy (Kenmore, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) hit a huge three to give D'Youville a 6 point lead late. Medaille came right back down the court to get those 3 points back, but a Jean-Ann Korona (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville) sank a jumper to send the Spartans back up by 5 with 3:30 remaining.
Closing the gap to 4 with 1:08 left in the game, Medaille began to foul the host Spartans in hopes to get back into the game. However, clutch free throw shooting from Marcely, Murphy, Korona and Andrews help seal the historic win for the Spartans over Medaille by the final score of 69-65.
Third year Head Coach Dan Glover had been aiming for a win over their conference rival for years, and knew that today was a huge step for him and his program.
"When I took over this program 3 years ago, I sat in a room with my team and gave them a vision of the future and what was to come. A part of that vision was to beat our rival Medaille College."
Leading the way on offense for the Spartans were two of the team's captains. Bridget Andrews scored a team high 18 points. Alexis Smith scored 16 points and tied for the team high in rebounds with 9. Andrews shot 5-8 from behind the arc, making big shots when the team needed her. The senior also had a team high 5 assists to go with her 5 rebounds. Smith had 3 assists for the game.
Sophomore Jean-Ann Korona had a very good all-around game for D'Youville. Scoring 10 points and hitting both of her free throws in crunch time, Korona also had a solid game on defense grabbing 7 rebounds, recording 2 steals and blocking 3 shots. The second year player also dished out 4 assists.
Awilda Murphy and Jillian Piniewski each scored 6 points against the Mavericks. Murphy added 4 rebounds, 2 steals and an assist while Piniewski tied for the team high with 9 rebounds, had 4 assists and a steal. Amanda Marcely led all bench players with 11 points and 8 rebounds. Danette Laguerre had 2 points and a steal with Casey Bartels (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) grabbing 3 rebounds an assist off the bench.
Coach Glover recognized how focused his team was today and how they bought into his vision and made it a reality.
"Today we believed in it, we worked hard for it, and we accomplished it. We will celebrate it tonight, but we have much bigger plans that we need to get back on the court and work for tomorrow."
Wednesday's win snaps a 7 game losing streak the Spartans had, and puts them in a position to get back into playoff contention.
"This is just a feel good victory," said Glover, "and I am so proud of our team with all the adversity we have faced, but staying strong and not letting that define us."
Coach Glover and the women will look to continue their winning and push for playoffs as they host the Mount Aloysius Mounties on Saturday, February 7th at 1pm. The game will be the women's pink game, raising breast cancer awareness.