Women's Basketball Faces Southern Connecticut in NCAA First Round on Friday, 2:30 p.m.
BROOKVILLE, N.Y. (March 7, 2012) – Earning a seven-seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament, the women's basketball team of C.W. Post will be taking on the two-seed in Southern Connecticut this Friday at 2:30 p.m. at host Bentley.
The Pioneers qualified for the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid after finishing 21-9 this season, including an 11-5 ECC record. The group last played on Saturday, March 3, during the ECC semifinals in a loss to Dowling, 70-53. Dowling connected on 11 three-pointers, had 37 points scored off the bench, and controlled the rebounding margin by a 46-37 advantage. Kelly Puwalski came off the bench to score 18 points and take away three steals.
Nicolette Marciniak (Brooklyn, N.Y.) contributed 15 points and eight rebounds to the Pioneer effort with the team as a whole forcing 33 turnovers.
Through 30 games this season, C.W. Post has averaged 74.4 points per game and has allowed 64.3 points a game and a 37.6 shooting percentage to opponents. The Pioneers have also controlled the battle on the backboards with a 8.3 rebounding margin and on the defensive end have come up with 10.1 steals per game to go along with 3.5 blocks a game.
Felicia Joyner (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) enters the NCAA tournament after being named ECC Player of the Year last week. She earned that award on the back of 17.0 points a game, 3.6 rebounds a game, and 2.2 assists a game. Marciniak and
Samantha Kopp (Franklinville, N.Y.) have formed a tough frontcourt as they have combined for 19.1 points per game and 16.9 rebounds per game.
Catherine Lutz (Easton, Pa.) has continued to be a deep threat for the offense, hitting 47 three-pointers to this point.
Alexis Peters (Dorchester, Mass.) has totaled 65 steals over the course of the season to lead the defense.
Southern Connecticut earned the number two seed in the East Region behind a 24-5 overall mark that included a Northeast-10 Conference record of 19-3 and are currently ranked number 18 in the nation. The Owls are coming off a defeat in the conference championship game this past Sunday, March 4, losing to Bentley by a final score of 79-52. Bentley generated the win with 27 points off turnovers and 40 points in the paint with Lauren Batista dropping in 20 points. Sylvanya Moore led Southern Connecticut with 17 points.
The Owl offense is currently scoring at a pace of 65.4 points per game with the defense only allowing 58.6 points a game. The low defensive average can be contributed to 14.0 steals per game that have contributed to 22.3 turnovers a game. The offense has also been benefitted by 13.1 assists per game.
Moore currently leads all scorers for the Owls with a 14.2 scoring average to go with 5.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists. Camille Fantini comes away with 3.6 steals a game while also scoring 12.0 points a game and 6.2 boards per game. Moni Smith-Ocran leads the team in rebounding with 9.9 rebounds a game and also drops in 10.2 points a game.
The Pioneers and Owls have not met since Nov. 29, 2008 and C.W. Post is 8-14 against Southern Connecticut. That 2008 game resulted in an 82-62 win for Southern Connecticut. Joyner is the only player still remaining from that team, as she played 23 minutes in that game and finished with two points and three rebounds. Alex Fiola and Lauren Allen still are on the team for the Owls, as those two also played in the game. Allen came scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds while Fiola chipped in nine points. Former Pioneer,
Whitney Murrer, led all scorers with 23 points and pulled in nine rebounds in the effort.
The winner of this first round game will take on the winner of Dowling vs. Holy Family on Saturday, March 10 for a 5 p.m. contest at Bentley.
The game will be called on play-by-play through
www.wcwpsports.com, as well as a live video from
www.northeast10.tv by clicking on
www.packnetwork.com/ncaadiieastmw and then can be followed on Twitter on the Pioneer's page, @cwpostpioneers, as well as a live stats link found at
http://livestats.prestosports.com/bentley/ .
Click here for the Women's Tournament Page
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