North Easton, Mass. – The Le Moyne College women's basketball team earned their 10^th Northeast Conference victory on Saturday afternoon at Stonehill College by a score of 55-44 inside Merkert Gymnasium.

The win was Le Moyne's third in a row, and the 50^th career victory for head coach Mary Grimes.

The Dolphins, currently in second place in the NEC Standings with a 10-2 conference resume, officially clinched a home game for the first round of the NEC Tournament.

Haedyn Roberts (Holland Patent, N.Y./Holland Patent) led all scorers with 14 points on 3-6 from the field, including 2-2 from three-point range and 6-7 from the line in addition to eight rebounds, two assists and a block in 29 minutes played off the bench.

In Le Moyne's last three games, Roberts is a combined 9-15 from the field, including 4-4 from three-point range.

Sydney Lusher (Oneida, N.Y./Oneida) logged a team-high 37 minutes during which she tallied 12 points, six rebounds and two steals. Lusher has now scored in double figures in five of Le Moyne's last six games.

Lytoya Baker (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) was the third Dolphin to score in double figures, finishing one rebound shy of recording her fourth consecutive double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.

Emily Florvil (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth) tied her season and career-high of seven rebounds during the win to go along with nine points and three assists.

Kaia Goode (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) added seven points, three rebounds and two assists to the Le Moyne cause.

Quotes from redshirt-junior forward Haedyn Roberts during her postgame interview with Le Moyne radio play-by-play commentator Tim McCaffrey:
On her three-point shooting: "My teammates just give me a lot of confidence. Just them having the confidence in me to make those open shots means a lot and that's a big part of me making those is having the confidence from 12 other girls on the team."

On the physicality of the game: "I think you have to keep your cool, you can't let the physicality and the no-calls get to you because it's just going to make it harder to play through that. Just keeping your composure and knowing that you can go stronger and go harder and finish through that contact and not expect a call I think is what really helps me."

On the team's success in conference play: "Our team works really hard, and we want to benefit from everything that we're doing together as a team on the court, and this league is really competitive. I think we do a good job staying competitive and keeping up with the other teams and it means a lot to us that we are at the top of the league and doing so well."

Quotes from Le Moyne head coach Mary Grimes:
"With our schedule, we played some really tough teams early, and we played a tough team today. Stonehill just grinds you. Last time I was here, (current assistant coach) Joanna (Dobrovosky '18) broke her nose… I watched (former Le Moyne head coach) Coach Castelli in (2019-20) and they had a nice close game with (Stonehill) so this is a tough place to play, it's a great team, but kudos to my team for grinding it out because it was definitely a grind today."

On limiting Stonehill leading scorer Jada Thornton to five points, including zero points in the first half: "(Thornton) had her way at our place, so we really tried to focus in on that, and she had a good game against Merrimack so we talked about keying in on her and really controlling their go-to's Jada and Cameron (Ward)."

On the play of Emily Florvil: "(Emily) is relentless. She's got a ton of heart and it shows. She doesn't let one thing that happened previously affect the next day or the next moment so she had lots of energy today and we needed it, we needed her defensively and on the boards and she got it done today."

Le Moyne outrebounded the Skyhawks by a tally of 44-34 with the help of 17 offensive boards.

With just nine turnovers on Saturday, the 'Phins committed less than 10 turnovers for the fourth time this season. Besides the season opener against Colorado State, Le Moyne has forced at least 10 turnovers in every game this season.

Saturday marked the third time in 2023-24 that the Dolphins held their opponent to under 50 points. Le Moyne also held CCSU to 44 points during their first meeting in Syracuse on January 19.

Brooke Paquette was the only Skyhawk to score in double figures with 10 points, while junior forward Maureen Stapleton pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds in addition to eight points and a team-high four assists. Cameron Ward added nine points, six rebounds, two blocks and a steal to the Stonehill cause.

Following a jumper by Paquette with 4:09 left in the third quarter that trimmed Le Moyne's lead to 34-32, the Dolphins went on an 8-0 run, keyed by Florvil, to close the quarter and take a 10-point lead into the fourth.

With 3:17 left in the frame, Florvil caught the ball at the top of the key, drove to her left, drew an extra defender and dropped a bounce pass between two Stonehill players to Roberts who made a layup through contact on the right block, drew a shooting foul and converted the free throw to complete the three-point play and make it a five-point game.

Le Moyne's defensive pressure forced a Stonehill turnover at the other end, and Florvil kept the ensuing Le Moyne possession alive with an offensive rebound, which preceded an offensive rebound and a missed putback from Baker, and an offensive rebound by Goode, who brought the ball out to the top of the key to reset the offense.

As the possession continued, Florvil drove towards the left block and across the baseline, drew the attention of multiple Stonehill defenders and kicked the ball out to Goode who knocked down a three pointer from the right wing.

Florvil scored the final basket of the quarter herself when she caught a pass from Roberts with 1:07 on the third quarter clock and drained a long two pointer from the right wing to give the Dolphins their second 10-point lead of the game.

Stonehill went on a 12-3 run in the first seven minutes of the fourth period, capped by a made three pointer from Stapleton with three minutes remaining that cut Le Moyne's lead to 45-44.

During the next Le Moyne possession, Baker drove from the top of the key to the right block and converted a contested running layup.

Stonehill grabbed a defensive rebound with 1:47 and pushed the ball in transition with a chance to tie the game, but Lusher cut off a drive from the right wing and deflected a pass to help the 'Phins regain possession of the ball.

At the other end of the floor, Lusher made a quick move past her defender on the left wing and knocked down a pull up jumper to extend Le Moyne's lead to 49-44 with just under a minute remaining.

Roberts made a great defensive effort to block a three-point attempt during the next Stonehill possession, leading to a defensive rebound for Baker, who was immediately fouled and then knocked down two free throws to make it 51-44 in favor of the Dolphins. Roberts and Florvil each made two free throws in the final 31 seconds of the contest to close out the win for Le Moyne.

Le Moyne, which bested Stonehill for the first time this season on February 9 in Syracuse, has now claimed three NEC regular season sweeps this season, with two victories against Stonehill, Merrimack and Central Connecticut State.

After compiling a combined 30-9 NE10 record during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns, the Dolphins have now won at least 10 conference games in all three years of Mary Grimes' tenure as head coach.

The Le Moyne women's basketball team will return to action on Thursday with a home game against LIU at 7:00 p.m.