Dallas Women’s Basketball Wins Big in NEAC Tournament, Advance to Finals!

The UD women's basketball team advanced to the NEAC Tournament Championship game with a dominate 71-58 performance against the tournaments top seeded team, the Keuka College Storm. The Crusaders took the lead within the first minute of the game and by midway through the first half had stretched it to 11 points before Keuka went on their only run of the night, tying the game at 28 right before the halftime buzzer went off.

Fueled by the momentum that they had built in the end of the second half Keuka took their first lead of the game early in the half, and at the 15 minute mark they were still ahead by 4 points. Faced with the deficit, UD responded with their characteristic poise, tying the game and eventually taking a 2 point lead on junior forward Cara Sczepanski's (Highland Village, TX/Marcus H.S) basket with 11:47 left in the game. From then the Crusaders never looked back, with every offensive possession they pulled further away from the Storm. By the time the final buzzer had sounded it was clear to all who the better team was.

Despite having a tough game shooting from the field (4-16), Sczepanski still managed to lead her team in scoring with 22 points. Most of her points came at the line, where she made 14 of 16 free throws. Sczepanski also hauled down 10 boards, to record her 15th double-double of the season, while adding 5 steals and a block. Freshman point guard Kylie Yoshimura (Temple City, CA/Mark Keppel H.S) also maintained her high level of play, scoring 17 points while dishing out 3 assists and grabbing 4 rebounds. In last night's 71-63 quarterfinal win over SUNY-IT, Yoshimura broke the UD single season record with 131 surpassing UD great Kristi Malone who registered 130 assists in the 2004-05 season to establish the mark. Freshman guard Christina Curt (Katy, TX/Faith West Academy) hit 8 of 9 free throws on the on her way to a 12 point night to go with 2 assists and a steal.

With the victory the Crusaders put themselves in prime position to win their first ever NEAC Tournament Championship, as well as a first ever berth in the NCAA DIII Tournament. Tomorrow they take on the third seeded Penn State-Berks Nittany Lions in the championship game. Berks enters the game in top form, having defeated SUNY-Cobleskill 64-48 in their semi-final game. Furthermore, Berks will have home court advantage in the game since the tournament is taking place on their home court in Reading, PA. Berks was 18-9 this year, and with the combination of their play of late and the home court advantage, the Crusaders will have to play their best ball if they want to secure the win and a NCAA berth. The Dallas, Berks match up in Reading starts at 1:00pm Eastern Time. Hopefully we will find out tomorrow afternoon that they are up to the task.