Ward leads the Skyhawks into postseason play for the first time at the Division I level, having earned NEC Prime Performer honors for the third time in four weeks on Friday (PHOTO BY Bob Blanchard) |
No. 7 Skyhawks and No. 2 Dolphins to clash in NEC Quarterfinal between former NE10 opponents Monday at 7 p.m.
2024 NEC Women's Basketball Tournament Central
Stonehill Women's Basketball Game Notes
EASTON, Mass. (March 9, 2024) – Seventh-seeded Stonehill College will have familiar surroundings as it makes its Northeast Conference Tournament debut when it visits former Northeast-10 Conference postseason opponent and No. 2-seeded Le Moyne College for a quarterfinal round matchup at Ted Grant Court on Monday at 7 p.m.
Admission for Monday's NEC Quarterfinal will be $10.00 for all individuals 18 and older and $5.00 for children 5-17 and college students with their college ID. The game will also be broadcast live on NEC Front Row with Tim McCaffrey calling the action for the Le Moyne production. The broadcast can be accessed via stonehillskyhawks.com through its NEC Front Row portal (necfrontrow.com/schools/SC) or through Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku via the NEC On the Run App.
Stonehill (4-25, 4-12 NEC) has qualified for the postseason every year it has been eligible to do so and will make its NEC Tournament debut, along with Le Moyne (16-13, 14-2 NEC), in its first year of eligibility after the NEC President's Council voted to waive the waiting period for programs in transition to full NCAA Division I membership at its end of the year meetings last June. The Skyhawks were the only program to qualify for the first 40 Northeast-10 Conference women's basketball tournaments, dating back to the Conference's first year sponsoring women's basketball in 1981-82, prior to accepting an invitation to the Northeast Conference in 2022 and starting its transition to Division I.
Stonehill captured six NE10 titles in 13 total NE10 Championship appearances, last winning the title in 2020, but advancing to the title game in its final season in 2022. Both Stonehill and Le Moyne are ineligible to receive the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament as transitioning members, with the Skyhawks still two years away from full Division I membership with the 2026-27 academic year. Le Moyne, in its first year of transition to Division I and member of the NEC, made 19 NE10 Tournament appearances during its time in the Conference, winning its lone NE10 Championship in its only finals appearance in 2019.
Monday will mark the 40th meeting all-time between Stonehill and Le Moyne, the fifth in postseason play, in a series that dates to the 1996-97 season. Stonehill holds a 27-12 advantage in the series, winning all four prior postseason encounters which all occurred in the NE10 Tournament, but Le Moyne has won the last three matchups, including a sweep of the regular season series between this two this year. The Dolphins posted a 72-51 victory in Syracuse on February 9, before adding a 55-44 decision just eight days later in Easton. Their last postseason matchup was a 55-53 Stonehill victory in the semifinal round of the 2020 NE10 Tournament on the way to the Skyhawks sixth and final NE10 Championship. Monday marks just the second postseason matchup between the two in Syracuse after Stonehill notched a 56-51 victory in the first round of the 2016 NE10 Tournament.
Thornton is averaging a team-high 11.0 points per game this season - good for tenth among NE10 leaders (PHOTO BY Brian Foley) |
Seniors Cameron Ward and Jada Thornton led the way for Stonehill in its two regular season meetings with Le Moyne, much as they have over the final month of the season. The duo, who have combined to account for half of the Skyhawks scoring output since the start of February, combined to average 22.5 of Stonehill's 47.5 points per game against the Dolphins. Ward averaged 11.5 points on 40-percent shooting, with 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists over the two games, including 14 points aided by 6-for-7 shooting from the free-throw line, four rebounds and two assists in the first visit to Syracuse. Thornton added 11.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists over the two regular season matchups, including her second double-double of the year with a game-high 17 points and career-high 12 rebounds with three assists in the road visit to Le Moyne. Freshman Brooke Paquette led the Skyhawks in the home matchup with the Dolphins with a team-high ten points.
Le Moyne was a bit more balanced in its attack in the two wins over Stonehill, with three averaging in double-figures over the two games. Fifth-year Lytoya Baker averaged a double-double of 13.0 points and 10.5 rebounds over the two games, shooting 41.7% from the floor and converting 6-of-7 free-throws (85.7%) while adding 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals, including 15 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot in the victory in Syracuse. Postgrad Sydney Lusher added 13.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 3.5 steals over the two Dolphins wins, filling the box score with 15 points, four rebounds, four assists and five steals in the February 9 meeting at Ted Grant Court. The Dolphins also got 12.0 points on 62.5% shooting (5-for-8) from the floor and a combined 12-for-13 (92.3%) at the free-throw line from junior Haedyn Roberts who also contributed 7.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game in the series, leading the win in Easton with a game-high 14 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
Stonehill enters the NEC Tournament looking to rebound from a final month of the season where it posted just a key road victory at Saint Francis University (66-56) on February 24 over its last nine games since the start of February. The Skyhawks are ranked eighth in the NEC for scoring offense (52.0 ppg) and scoring defense (68.6 ppg) but are third in the Conference for three-point percentage defense (.301) and second only to Le Moyne (.257) in guarding the three in NEC play (.259). Stonehill ranks fourth in the NEC with 5.8 three-point field goals per game in Conference play and fifth in three-point percentage (.295). The Skyhawks are third in NEC play for blocked shots (2.94) and assists (13.06) per game.
Hayward has emerged as one of the top three-point shooters in the NEC this season (PHOTO BY Bob Blanchard) |
Thornton, who has earned NEC Prime Performer status a team-high four weeks this season, ranks tenth among NEC scoring leaders with 11.0 points per game, adding 4.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 32.9 minutes per game (9th NEC). She has posted the highest scoring increase from the 2022-23 season in the NEC this season, seeing a +9.3 boost to her scoring average this season that has her right in the mix for the Conference's Most Improved Player Award. Ward is averaging 9.6 points, shooting 79% (49-62) from the free-throw line since returning in mid-December after suffering a knee injury following Stonehill's NEC debut last January, while adding 5.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. The three-time NEC Prime Performer has scored in double-figures six of the last eight games and is contributing 13.4 points on 43.7% shooting with 7.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists during that stretch.
Postgrad Lauren Sampson, who played just 13 minutes of the first encounter with Le Moyne before being dealt an injury that kept her out of the return meeting with the Dolphins eight days later, has contributed a team-high 12.5 points on 40.5-percent shooting in the 14 games she has played since returning from an injury that kept her out of the Skyhawks first 12 games since transferring from Providence College. She has also contributed 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in her 22.3 minutes per game off the bench, and the Skyhawks are averaging nearly ten points per game more and shooting seven percent higher from the field and eight percent better from three-point range with her in the lineup compared to their first 12 games of the season.
Junior Sharn Hayward, who drained a program-record and NEC record matching 11 three-pointers on her way to a career-best and team season-high 33 points against Wagner College in January to earn NEC Player of the Week accolades, ranks second in the NEC with her 2.14 three-point field goals per game and fourth in three-point percentage at 34.3-percent (62-for-181) is adding 8.6 points, 2.0 rebounds and a team-high 2.7 assists (11th) in a team-high 34.6 minutes per game (5th), playing all 40 minutes in eight games this season.
Sampson has ranked among the top ten in scoring in NEC play in the Conference this season, but played just a little over ten minutes of the Skyhawks two meetings with Le Moyne this year (PHOTO BY Jennifer Raider) |
Junior Maureen Stapleton ranks third among NEC rebounding leaders with her team-high 7.8 boards per game, including 5.8 defensive rebounds (2nd) and 2.03 per game on the offensive glass (9th), third with 26 blocked shots and 14th with 2.3 assists per game. Paquette, an NEC Rookie of the Week once this season, has started 19 of the last 20 games in her first collegiate season and chips in 6.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.
Le Moyne enters its NEC Tournament debut winners of seven-straight, second only to NEC regular season champion Sacred Heart University's 12-straight wins, and ten of 11. The Dolphins will have enjoyed a nine-day break since their regular season finale against Saint Francis (W 56-24) at Grant Court on March 2, having had the schedule bye for the final night of the Conference season on Thursday. Le Moyne ranks second in the Conference for scoring defense (60.8 ppg) and rank sixth in scoring offense (56.8 ppg), while leading the NEC with 3.2 blocked shots per game and ranking second for free-throw percentage (.730) and turnover margin (+1.97 per game), third in field goal percentage defense (.398), assists (11.8) and steals (8.97) per game.
Baker is the lone Le Moyne player averaging in double-figures in scoring for the season, averaging nearly a double-double with 13.9 points (5th NEC) and a Conference-leading 8.6 rebounds per game, while adding a blocked shot per game (2nd) with 2.4 assists and 1.6 steals. Lusher adds 9.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.4 steals for the Dolphins, while sophomore Sierra Linnin contributes 7.5 points, 2.2 rebounds. Sophomore Kaia Goode chips in with 7.4 points, 3.0 assists (5th) and 1.7 steals (7th) per contest.
The winner of Monday night's matchup will advance to the semifinal round on Thursday, March 14, at campus sites. The tournament will be reseeded following the results of Monday night's quarterfinal round, with the highest remaining seed hosting the lowest remaining seed and then the remaining two teams squaring off for a spot in the NEC Championship game to be played at the home of the highest remaining seed on Sunday, March 17, at noon and broadcast live on ESPNU.
For the latest on Stonehill Athletics, follow the Skyhawks via social media on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Fans can also download the Stonehill Skyhawks "Front Row" mobile app, powered by PrestoSports, on iTunes and the Android Market.
2024 Northeast Conference
Women's Basketball Tournament
Monday, March 11
Quarterfinals (hosted by higher seeds)
all games on NEC Front Row
#8 Saint Francis (5-24, 4-12 NEC) at #1 Sacred Heart (21-9, 15-1 NEC), 7 p.m.
#7 Stonehill (4-25, 4-12 NEC) at #2 Le Moyne (16-13, 14-2 NEC), 7 p.m.
#6 LIU (8-21, 5-11 NEC) at #6 FDU (13-16, 11-5 NEC), 7 p.m.
#5 Central Connecticut State (9-20, 7-9 NEC) at #4 Merrimack (11-18, 8-8 NEC), 7 p.m.
Thursday, March 14
Semifinals (teams will be reseeded after quarterfinals; hosted by higher seeds)
games broadcast on ESPN+, YES, NESN+ and NEC Front Row
Lowest remaining seed at top remaining seed, 7 p.m.
Two middle seeded teams at higher seed of those teams, 7 p.m.
Sunday, March 17
Championship (at highest remaining seed)
broadcast on ESPNU and ESPN+
at highest remaining seed, noon
