Buffalo, NY - The D'Youville Women's Basketball Team took over the top spot in the AMCC Saturday afternoon after a thrilling 62-59 win over the visiting Pitt.-Greensburg Bobcats.

With the score 6-3 Pitt.-Greensburg just 7 minutes into the game, both teams came out of the gate struggling. At the 8:13 mark of the first, the Bobcats drew even with the Spartans at 10 all. Both teams picked up the scoring as the first half wound down, with D'Youville taking the lead with under a minute left thanks to Danette Laguerre (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech) hitting 2 shots to make the 25-24 Spartans. After 20 minutes, the Spartans led at halftime 26-24.

During the first 10 minutes of the second half, the two teams never were more than 5 points away from each other. With 7:34 left on the clock, Amanda Marcely (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Grimes) hit a layup to begin the 8-0 scoring run that would give the Spartans a 50-42 lead with 4:38 left in regulation. D'Youville held off the Bobcat offense until :17 seconds left in the game where Pitt.-Greensburg tied the game and took the game to overtime.

Throughout the overtime, D'Youville showed why they are tops the AMCC and had a 5-1 record coming into the game as they never trailed the extra period. Junior Alexis Smith (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) came up clutch, making 3 free throws and hitting a layup to score 5 of the 8 points for D'Youville in OT, driving them to a 62-59 win.

Third year Head Coach Dan Glover saw something in his team in crunch time that has gotten them off to the best start in recent history. "I think we were driven by the passion and want to succeed and knowing we have each others back if the situation got tough," said Glover.

Glover acknowledged how Greensburg applied intense defense to the Spartans offense. "Today we saw a different kind of pressure then we were used to so far this season," he added.

For her third game in a row, sophomore Jean-Ann Korona (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville) led the Spartan offense in scoring. With 18 points and 12 rebounds, Korona not only led the team in both categories, but she recorded her first double-double of the season. Over her last 3 games, Jean-Ann has averaged 20.3 points per game to go along with 9.3 rebounds per game.

Missing a double-double for only the second time this season was junior forward Amanda Marcely. Her 15 points and 9 rebounds were both good for second on the team. Senior captain Bridget Andrews (Amherst, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) came up huge for the team from the free throw line, making 6-8 and scoring 8 points overall.

A complete team effort was put forth by the 6-1 Spartans team, according to Coach Glover. "Today I think was our best overall team, 1-15 effort. We were loud and into it and played with passion and pride," said Glover.

Last season's leading scorer, Alexis Smith was a clutch player in OT, as well as scored 8 points to lead all bench players. Smith added 5 rebounds to her performance. Guard Awilda Murphy (Kenmore, NY/Sacred Heart Academy) continued her strong freshman campaign by scoring 5 points, including the final 3 points of OT, all of which were free throws. Murphy added 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals to her game.

The next game for the D'Youville Women's Basketball Team is Saturday, December 13th at home against La Roche. The game begins at 1:00PM.