Alvernia Claims 2023 ECAC Women's Basketball Title
Mahwah, N.J. - The 2023 Eastern College Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Championship game saw a lot of back-and-forth action with No. 5 Alvernia University emerging with a 57-48 victory over No. 2 New Jersey City University this afternoon at Ramapo College to claim this year’s ECAC title.
The Golden Wolves close out the 2022-23 campaign with a 20-10 mark while the Gothic Knights end the year at 17-12.
With almost four minutes of action eclipsing in the first quarter, Sarah Edmond nailed the first jumper of the game for either team giving NJCU an early 2-0 lead. Both teams after that traded baskets with Gothic Knights holding a 10-8 edge as the quarter came to an end.
The Gothic Knights added a free throw to its lead to open the second quarter to go up 11-8, but Alvernia split a pair at the foul line to keep the game within two trailing 11-9 with 9:06 left. NJCU used a 3-0 run to give the game its biggest lead of the half at, 14-9. The Golden Wolves used a 9-3 run to take its first lead of the game going up 18-17 with 5:42 remaining. Edmond was able to tie the game at 18-18 for NJCU off a foul shot and with just over two and a half minutes left fellow teammate Briana Davis nailed a jumper to put the team up, 20-18.
Kayla Williams grabbed the defensive rebound off a missed shot by NJCU and she would go the distance and lay it in to tie the game at 20 for Alvernia. With 47 seconds left in the half, Nicole Etchison nailed a jumper to put Alvernia in front 22-20 going into the half.
Coming out of halftime, the momentum was on the Golden Wolves’ side as they opened the third on a 6-4 run to go up, 28-24. Back-to-back jumpers from NJCU’s Jalynn Clark tied the game at 28 but the tie didn’t last long as Alvernia put together an 11-4 run to reclaim the lead with 2:09 remaining in the third. With just under a minute left in the quarter, Jada Camacho drained a three to bring the Gothic Knights within four after three-quarters of action.
Down 39-35 at the start of the fourth, NJCU’s Damaris Rodriguez tallied the first three points to open the quarter to bring the Gothic Knights within one. Both teams would trade back-to-back 3-pointers with the Golden Wolves holding a 42-41 advantage. From that point on Alvernia was able to put together a 15-7 run to close out the game.
NJCU edged out Alvernia 50-47 on the boards while the Golden Wolves outshot the Gothic Knights from the foul line 75 percent to 61.5 percent.
Tamia Wessels led Alvernia in scoring as she tallied 14 points while going 5 of 13 from the field and a perfect 3 of 3 from the line. She was able to grab four rebounds in the process. Teammate Cathryn Kramer finished the day with 12 points and seven boards while Williams grabbed a team-high nine boards to go along with her eight points.
NJCU’s Rodriguez tallied a team-high 18 points, grabbed six rebounds, and dished out six assists on the day. Jada Camacho pitched in with 10 points and a pair of 3-pointers while Edmond led the team in rebounding with nine boards.