Hackensack, N.J. – The Le Moyne College women's basketball team (14-13, 12-2 NEC) outlasted the FDU Knights (10-16, 8-5 NEC) on Saturday afternoon at FDU's Bogota Savings Bank Center by a score of 70-60 in a battle between the second and third place teams in the NEC Standings.

The Dolphins worked their way back from an early double-digit deficit and tied the game at 44-44 going into the fourth quarter.

Le Moyne outscored the Knights 26-16 in the final 10 minutes to claim their fifth consecutive double-digit victory, which is their largest win streak of the season, and their 10^th double-digit win in NEC play.

After trailing 32-25 at halftime, Le Moyne shot 16-28 (57%) from the field in the second half, including 15-23 (65%) on two-point field goals. The Dolphins went 8-13 from the field and 9-11 from the line in the fourth quarter to close out their sixth conference road victory.

In the middle of an exciting fourth quarter, FDU held a 55-54 lead with 5:17 remaining, then the Dolphins went on a 15-0 run over a four-minute stretch to put the game away.

The Dolphins shot just 2-11 from beyond the three-point line, compared to 7-31 for the Knights, but Le Moyne scored a season-best 42 points in the paint, compared to 26 for FDU.

The Dolphins also committed just six turnovers, which is a season-best for the squad, and they forced the Knights into 12 giveaways.

"We are just gritty and we fight," said Le Moyne head coach Mary Grimes. "And I will say this, as soon as I walked in the locker room (at halftime after we cut their lead to seven), I just said 'I love this team', and they fought and they fought, and they're getting everything that they deserve."

Le Moyne junior guard Emily Florvil (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth) scored a career-best 13 points on 5-6 shooting from the field and 3-3 from the line. She also pulled down a career and season-high-tying seven rebounds, dished out three assists and recorded two steals with zero turnovers in 28 minutes off the bench.

"Honestly it feels good," Florvil said of her hard work paying off in the form of a career-best 13 points. "Especially having people around you that believe in you, like my teammates do. Every game is not going to be perfect for me, but they always keep encouraging me and I just like doing good to make the people around me happy as well."

"Me and (assistant coach Joanna Dobrovosky) we talk about clean slate, Florvil continued. "Every practice, every game, forget what happened the last time, clean slate, because nobody else is thinking about it but you. So you just gotta come back harder every time."

Fifth-year senior guard Lytoya Baker (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) tallied her NEC-leading 11^th double-double of the season with a game-high 20 points and a game-high 10 rebounds with two assists, a steal and just one turnover in 39 minutes played.

Baker, who surpassed 1,000 career points during Le Moyne's home win over LIU on Thursday, now has four games with at least 20 points in conference play. She has scored in double figures in 23 different games this season, and she remains the league leader in rebounding average.

Graduate guard Sydney Lusher (Oneida, N.Y./Oneida) also logged 39 minutes for the 'Phins and was the third Dolphin to score in double figures with 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and a block with zero turnovers.

Sophomore guard Kaia Goode (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) contributed nine points, three assists and a steal, while redshirt-junior forward Haedyn Roberts (Holland Patent, N.Y./Holland Patent) added eight points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench.

Additional quotes from Le Moyne head coach Mary Grimes:
"I don't remember what I said during the timeout (before a 9-2 run to close the first half), but I was really positive with them at halftime. This is a team that thrives on positivity, and I'm a positive person, so it's very rare that I get on them in a harsh way. But FDU gave us everything that they could throw at us, and we really locked in on defense in that second half. To defend the three the way that we did... we defended the three really, really well and we were able to get some easy baskets in transition. Kudos to the team, I told them we're fighters and we fought the whole game."

"We were able to attack their zone in a variety of ways, whether it was Toya at the high post, Haedyn at the high post, Syd Lusher at the high post, whether we were scoring inside or kicking it out, we were able to attack their zone a lot better. As far as defensively, we had a lot of communication and it was a lot of communication from Lytoya Baker. I mean I could hear her all the way at the other end of the court. In the first half, maybe I wasn't coaching them well enough on defense, but (Lytoya) coached them unbelievably well in the second half and we were able to limit their opportunities, playing hard and playing together."

On Kaia Goode dealing with foul trouble: "It's definitely hard to play with foul trouble if you're anybody, but if you're the point guard it's definitely tough. When she came out I told her to stay locked in in the game. I think she was able to sit there and see some things that were open, and she hit a huge three in the corner (at the beginning of the fourth quarter), and we talked about what we were going to run if it was open, and we had to get it there and knock down shots."

On clinching at least a second place finish in the NEC: "It means we're going in the right direction. Our philosophy and our thought is to win, and we just take it one game at a time, and if we focus on that we'll be right where we need to be."

FDU senior forward Teneisia Brown, sophomore forward Lilly Parke and freshman guard Staci Williams each scored in double figures during the setback.

Brown tallied a team-high 19 points on 9-14 from the field with a team-high eight rebounds and a season-high four blocks in 34 minutes played.

Parke recorded 15 points on 4-7 from the field, 2-4 from three and 5-6 from the line in addition to six rebounds, while Williams registered 13 points with a game-high three made threes.

During the opening quarter, Parke knocked down two three pointers and Williams added a three pointer and a jumper to help the Knights establish an 18-13 lead after 10 minutes of action. FDU then began the second quarter on a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 27-13.

With 5:22 remaining in the second period, Brown used a spin move in the lane and converted a layup to give the Knights a 30-16 lead and force a Le Moyne timeout. When play resumed, Florvil keyed a 9-2 Le Moyne run to close the quarter and cut the deficit to seven at halftime.

Florvil scored seven of her nine first-half points during the run. In Le Moyne's first possession following the timeout, Florvil used a screen from Roberts on the left wing, drove into the lane and finished a contested runner off two feet.

Following a putback by Brown with 4:37 remaining, the final points that Le Moyne would allow in the quarter, Roberts swished a jumper from the short corner at the three-minute mark.

With just over a minute remaining in the half, Florvil caught a pass in the left corner in transition, crossed over from left to right, gathered the ball and banked in a contested runner to cut the deficit to 10 points.

During Le Moyne's final possession of the half, Florvil drove from the top of the key towards the right block, banked in a running layup over two defenders, drew a shooting foul and made the additional free throw to make it 32-25 in favor of the Knights.

Baker scored five of Le Moyne's first seven points of the third quarter. With a little under six minutes left in the third, Baker caught the ball at the right elbow, lobbed a pass into the paint for Brianna Williams (Brampton, Ontario/Southwest Academy/Hartford) who caught the ball under the basket, turned around and finished a contested shot in the paint to make it 37-34 FDU.

Senior guard Abby Conklin knocked down a three at the other end for FDU, then Le Moyne scored the next six points with baskets from Lusher, Sierra Linnin (Valley Cottage, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) and Baker to tie the game at 40-40.

FDU scored the next four points on free throws, then with 1:15 left, Lusher caught the ball on the left wing and lobbed a pass to the opposite side of the backboard for Baker who caught the ball and scored the layup in midair.

Goode came up with a steal and scored a fast break layup with 36 seconds remaining to tie the game at 44-44 going into the fourth quarter.

Roberts and Goode helped the Dolphins begin the quarter on a 5-0 run. During Le Moyne's first possession of the quarter, Goode drove into the paint and delivered a one-handed pass to Roberts who finished the uncontested layup to give the Dolphins their first lead since it was 2-0 in the first minute of the contest. At the other end of the floor, Roberts grabbed a contested defensive rebound and threw an outlet pass to Linnin who pushed the ball up the left side of the floor and led Goode with a pass to the corner where she buried a triple.

FDU responded with a three pointer from Williams and a layup from Brown to tie the game at 49-49.

Baker and Brown then began trading baskets as the two teams went back and forth. The two seniors combined to score 13 straight points, seven from Baker and six from Brown, between the 7:02 and 4:57 marks of the fourth quarter.

A pull up jumper from Baker at the 4:57 mark put Le Moyne back in front by one, then Florvil came away with a steal on the perimeter and sent a long pass ahead to Goode who found a cutting Lusher. Lusher finished a left-handed layup around an FDU defender to give the Dolphins a 58-55 advantage.

Le Moyne wound not relinquish the lead again, as the Dolphins held FDU scoreless between the 5:17 and 0:54 marks of the fourth quarter during which they scored 15 unanswered points to extend their lead to 69-55.

Le Moyne, which previously clinched an NEC Tournament berth as well as at least one home game in the NEC Tournament, is now guaranteed to finish in the top two in the NEC Standings. Sacred Heart (18-9, 12-1) remains in first place in the conference standings after defeating CCSU on Saturday.

Saturday's win puts Le Moyne above .500 for the first time this season. After going 2-11 in their non-conference schedule, which included three teams currently in the Associated Press National Top 25 Poll, the 'Phins have won 12 of their 14 conference contests.

With their second victory over FDU, the Dolphins have now claimed five NEC regular season sweeps.

Saint Francis, who the Dolphins will play in their regular-season finale on March 2, is the only NEC team that Le Moyne has not beaten this season.

Le Moyne will play its final road game of the regular season on February 29 at Wagner. The Dolphins previously bested the Seahawks by a score of 56-45 in Syracuse on February 1.