Bridgeport, Conn. — The NYIT women's basketball team is one win away from earning the East Coast Conference's automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
The fifth-seeded Bears stunned top-seeded Queens, 76-71, Saturday at the University of Bridgeport to advance to Sunday's noon final against the winner of No. 2 Molloy and No. 3 St. Thomas Aquinas.
The Bears snapped the Knights' 16-game winning streak, during which Queens had produced an average margin of victory of 14.3 points. Queens entered Saturday's semifinal with a 24-3 overall and 17-1 ECC record.
After opening as much as a 15-point first-half lead, the Bears trailed for the only time in the game, 71-70, when MacKenzie Rowland converted a layup with 1:03 remaining. However, ECC Rookie of the Year Margaret Knollmeyer answered with a huge offensive rebound and sank two free throws with 27 seconds remaining to restore the lead and the Bears held on.
"I'm still shaking from it," Knollmeyer said. "It was really intense."
Said coach Kenneth Parham: "Well, she was the Rookie of the Year in this conference. And she proved today why that was a very worthy award for her."
Nina Vukosavljevic finished with a career-high 30 points, while Knollmeyer had 16 points and Shanice Allen had 14.
NYIT (18-10) will be bidding for its first conference postseason title since the formation of the NYCAC, the predecessor to the ECC, in 1991. It marks the third time in the past five years the Bears have reached the conference finals.
The Knights topped NYIT in the 2015 final.
"It was amazing," Vukosavljevic said about Saturday's win. "My freshman year they beat us for championship rings — two points difference. Last year they won [the conference tournament], although we were the No. 1 seed. I think this year we deserved it, so it was a great win."
The Bears showed steady improvement throughout the 2016-17 season. They went 4-5 the first time through the conference schedule, then 6-3 the second time. NYIT then defeated Roberts Wesleyan in an opening-round playing game on Wednesday — the Bears' first victory in six lifetime trips to the Rochester school.
"These young ladies, from the beginning until the end, never stopped all season long," Parham said. "They just kept getting better. It's a great win."
Provided by the NYIT Sports Information Department.
