Box Score Steubenville, OH – The D'Youville women's basketball team locked up the fourth overall seed in the AMCC playoffs on Saturday afternoon with their fifth straight win, defeating the Franciscan Barons by the final score of 62-51.
D'Youville broke away from a 2-2 tie to score nine unanswered points, taking an 11-2 win. Alexis Smith (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) made a big impact in the first quarter, scoring seven points. Smith scored four consecutive points, giving the Spartans an 18-9 lead but the Barons rebounded and ended the quarter trailing 20-14.
The Spartans opened up an 11-point lead to open the second quarter. Back-to-back threes from Colleen Wirth (Elma, NY/Iroquois) and Ali Cochrane (New Port Richey, FL/Gulf) extended the Spartan's lead to 17 with 4:07 left in the half. Franciscan would take advantage of the Spartan's scoring drought in the last four minutes of play and cut their deficit to single-digits, trailing 33-24 at halftime.
The Barons brought the game to within five 3:07 into the third quarter. Jean-Ann Korona (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville) gave D'Youville a 17-point lead once again on a made three-pointer. Smith gave the team a 20-point lead with 2:05 remaining in the third and the Spartans would close out the quarter with a 54-39 lead.
With 2:11 elapsed in the fourth, The Spartans held a 14-point lead. The Barons brought their deficit to under 10 for the first time in the quarter with 1:26 remaining in the game. Danette Laguerre (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech) sealed the deal for D'Youville with a layup under a minute to go and the Spartans defeated the Barons by the final score 62-51.
Freshman Colleen Wirth led the team in scoring for the second straight game, scoring 16 points. Alexis Smith was right behind Wirth with 15 points of her own. Wirth added six rebounds and three assists and Smith chipped in with four rebounds. Junior Jean-Ann Korona recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 11 points and a team high 12 rebounds.
Danette Laguerre was the fourth D'Youville starter in double-digit scoring with 10 points of her own. Magan Magee (Ellenburg Center, NY/Northern Adirondack) dished out a team high four assists in the game. Ali Cochrane added four rebounds and six points off the bench, leading all bench players.
The women will host the Mount Aloysius Mounties on Wednesday, February 24th at 7pm in the first round of the AMCC playoffs. D'Youville enters the playoffs as the fourth seed.
