BUFFALO, N.Y. – The D'Youville University women's basketball team was defeated by #2 Gannon University 63-44 at the Saints Center on Monday night.
 
Senior Anna Jankovic (Averill Park, N.Y.) led the way for the Saints, scoring a team-high 15 points for the second consecutive game and grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. Jankovic is now just eleven points away from reaching the 1,000 career points milestone. Junior Morgan Giancaterino (Orchard Park, N.Y.) posted a solid showing, scoring nine points, dishing out three assists, and grabbing three rebounds.
 
DYU hung tough with the second-ranked Golden Knights through the first quarter of play. After falling behind 8-0, the Saints went on a 10-2 run that saw layups from Jankovic and Giancaterino and a three-pointer from freshman Samantha Ruhlman (Warren, Pa.) to even the score at 10-10. Gannon went back ahead 17-11, but a layup from freshman Aliviya Vallone Russell (Buffalo, N.Y.) and a pair of free throws from redshirt sophomore Megan Fedor (Elmira, N.Y.) trimmed the deficit to 17-16 as the first quarter came to an end.
 
The Golden Knights opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run to extend their lead to 27-16. Vallone Russell knocked down a three-pointer to put an end to the run and make it 27-19 halfway through the second quarter. Layups from Jankovic and freshman Allie Hall (Rochester, N.Y.) kept the Saints within eleven with under a minute left in the second quarter, but a three-pointer in the closing seconds gave Gannon a 37-23 advantage as the game went to halftime.
 
D'Youville started the third quarter with four-straight points thanks to a Jankovic layup and a close-range jumper from senior Sofie Fuglsang (Oberanven, Luxembourg) to make it a 10-point game. A 9-2 run by the Golden Knights extended their lead to seventeen with four minutes remaining in the third quarter. Junior Isabella Kostyal-Larrier (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) buried a mid-range jumper to make it 46-31 with two minutes to go in the third. Jankovic knocked down two free throws in the final seconds of the quarter to keep the deficit at fifteen.
 
Layups from Fedor and Jankovic kept the Saints within fifteen in the early stages of the fourth quarter. However, Gannon opened up a 60-38 lead with 3:34 left to go in the game. Ruhlman knocked down a jumper in the paint and Giancaterino put in a pair of layups in the final minutes, but the Golden Knights would go on to secure the 63-44 victory.
 
D'Youville drops to 2-5 with the loss and will now travel to the University of the District of Columbia to open their conference schedule on Friday.