Niagara University – The Le Moyne women's basketball team (18-15, 14-2 NEC) lost a thrilling game against Niagara University (21-13, 15-5 MAAC) in the first round of the WNIT by a score of 91-86 on Friday night at NU's Gallagher Center.

The Purple Eagles will travel to Vermont to take on the Catamounts in the second round of the Postseason WNIT on Monday, while the Dolphins conclude their first season at the Division I level with an 18-15 record, including a 14-2 resume in Northeast Conference play.

"Unbelievable game to coach," said Le Moyne head coach Mary Grimes. "(Niagara head coach) Jada Pierce is one of my good friends and we knew they were going to throw everything at us, but we threw everything at them. I am so proud of my team. They fought. They turned it over, we turned them over. It was a great basketball game for women's basketball

"We always take it one game at a time… I think this whole season we have built an unbelievable foundation for our future and the resiliency of this team to build this foundation was unbelievable. They did everything I asked, and they did everything for each other.

"Niagara is known for their press and their pressure, and to handle it with grace – and there were some mistakes, but just unbelievable effort and resiliency and toughness (from our players). I can go down my whole roster and every kid is just tough. The lessons we learned from basketball is going to carry them through life, they just don't give up. Kudos to Niagara, good luck to them the rest of the way, but our team is just remarkable. We made history this year and I'm super proud of them," Grimes added.

Graduate guard Sydney Lusher (Oneida, N.Y./Oneida) recorded a career-best 22 points with a career-high nine made field goals and pulled down a season-high seven rebounds in addition to two blocks and four steals, while sophomore guard Sierra Linnin (Valley Cottage, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) tied her career highs with 22 points and six made threes.

Fifth-year guard Lytoya Baker (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) tallied her 14^th double-double of the season with 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in 36 minutes played.

Sophomore guard Kaia Goode (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) and senior forward Haedyn Roberts (Holland Patent, N.Y./Holland Patent) each provided eight points, and Roberts pulled down eight rebounds for the fifth time this season.

Junior guard Emily Florvil (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth) added five points, a season and career-high-tying four steals along with two assists off the bench.

Graduate guard Angel Parker, junior guard Aaliyah Parker, graduate guard Destiny Strother and sophomore forward Amelia Strong each scored in double figures for Niagara, which appeared in the WNIT for the second consecutive season.

Angel Parker scored a game-high 23 points with the help of 10 made free throws in addition to five assists and four steals, while Aaliyah Parker recorded 19 points, five rebounds and four blocks. Strother shot 5-11 from three-point range to finish the contest with 17 points, while Strong registered a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Niagara shot 28-33 from the free-throw line on Friday, compared to 22-31 for the Dolphins.

Niagara entered the game leading all NCAA Division I teams in turnovers forced per game with 27.7. The Purple Eagles forced Le Moyne into a season-worst 26 turnovers on Friday and scored 29 points off of those turnovers. Le Moyne forced 19 Niagara turnovers and scored 20 points off of those turnovers.

Both teams registered new season highs in points during the postseason contest. Le Moyne also tied its season high of 44 points in the paint.

Niagara's full court pressure forced a handful of early turnovers for the Dolphins and allowed the Purple Eagles to jump out to a 12-0 lead, then Lusher scored Le Moyne's first basket of the day with 7:34 left in the opening quarter, and Linnin knocked down a three pointer during the next Le Moyne possession to make it 14-5.

Following a layup from Strong with just under three minutes left in the first, Niagara held a 20-11 lead, but Le Moyne scored the next eight points with a fast break layup from Goode, back-to-back baskets from Lusher and two free throws from Florvil to make it a one-point game.

Angel Parker scored a layup with 26 seconds left in the opening frame to make it 22-19 in favor of the Purple Eagles, then Le Moyne freshman guard Leah Middleton (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) scored the final basket of the period after Florvil saved the ball from going out of bounds following a missed three-point attempt.

Le Moyne took its first lead of the game with 9:08 left in the second quarter when Linnin made a backdoor cut at the top of the key, received a pass from Baker and converted a floater in the lane. Following a drive and finish from Baker, Linnin knocked down a three from the right wing to put the Dolphins ahead, 28-22.

An old-fashioned three-point play from Aaliyah Parker with 2:07 left in the in the first half cut Le Moyne's lead to one, then a three-point play from Angel Parker one minute later put the Purple Eagles back in front, 34-32.

The Purple Eagles remained in front for much of the third quarter.

Two free throws from Glover with 4:55 left in the third gave Niagara a 51-44 lead, but Linnin knocked down back-to-back threes during Le Moyne's next two possessions to cut the deficit to one.

Linnin finishes the season with 62 made three-point field goals, which is the ninth-most threes made in a single season by a Le Moyne player. She made 63 threes during the 2022-23 season, which is a freshman program record and tied for the sixth-most threes made in a single season by a Le Moyne player.

A layup by Aaliyah Parker at the 2:04 mark gave Niagara a 55-52 advantage, but Linnin knocked down her third three pointer of the quarter with 1:46 on the clock to tie the game.

The Dolphins went ahead by three after Baker cut through Niagara's press and scored an uncontested layup at the rim, but Strong made two free throws with seven seconds remaining to make it 59-58 in favor of Le Moyne going into the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter contained five lead changes and five ties.

Niagara went in front by three with just under nine minutes remaining following a tough finish in the lane by Strong, but Le Moyne immediately went the other way and Lusher scored an uncontested layup after racing through Niagara's press, and Linnin made two free throws with 7:48 on the clock to put Le Moyne up by one.

Aaliyah Parker made a three pointer with 7:41 remaining, then Roberts scored a layup during the ensuing Le Moyne possession off a pass from Goode to tie the game at 65-65.

A three-point play from sophomore guard Ary Hicks with 3:48 remaining gave Niagara a 76-71 lead, then Goode drew a foul and made two free throws a little over a minute later. Niagara then scored the next five points with the help of a three pointer from Strother to take an 81-73 lead with under two minutes remaining.

Following a timeout by Le Moyne, Lusher threw a long inbound pass to Baker, who corralled the ball just before reaching the right block and converted the layup through contact. Le Moyne got a stop at the other end, then Goode drew a foul during the ensuing Le Moyne possession and made two free throws to cut the deficit to four with 1:14 remaining in the game.

Two free throws by Angel Parker at the 59 second mark were negated by a Roberts layup less than 10 seconds later, then one made free throw from Glover made it a five-point game. Baker made two free throws with 31 seconds left to once again make it a one-possession game, then Le Moyne fouled Angel Parker who made two free throws at the other end.

Linnin then made her final three pointer of the game with 19 seconds remaining to make it 86-84 Niagara.

Angel Parker made two more free throws with 18 seconds remaining, then Niagara forced a turnover during the next Le Moyne possession. Parker made three free throws in the final 10 seconds to close out the win.

Lytoya Baker finishes the season with 203 defensive rebounds, which is one shy of her single-season program record 204 defensive rebounds that she tallied during the 2022-23 season. She concludes her Le Moyne career ranked 12^th all-time in points (1,119), fourth in rebounds (812), 12^th in assists (249), 14^th in blocks (62), ninth in steals (165), fourth in games played (113), tied for ninth in games started (86) and sixth in minutes played (3,177). She also accumulated 32 double-doubles during her four seasons on the Heights. Lytoya's 181 field goals made this season is the fourth-most field goals made in a single season in program history.

"I've been able to coach some great players and (Lytoya is) right up there," said Grimes after the game. "She's got a great attitude, she's got a great love for the game, and it shows. When you recruit kids like that, then they can grow and they can flourish and they can become great, and Lytoya became one of the greats here at Le Moyne."

Through three seasons and 86 games played as a Dolphin, senior forward Haedyn Roberts ranks 19^th in program history in blocked shots (49), 17^th in offensive rebounds (159) and third in career free-throw percentage (82.2%).

"Haedyn, to see her from (her redshirt-freshman season) to now, is just unbelievable," said Grimes. "She had some great leaders in front of her, Emma Brinker and Jenna Zimmerman. She learned from them, and she took what she learned from them and she flew, not only on the court but off the court. She was an unbelievable leader. Every timeout we had today she was giving everybody notes to take out here. Like 'we gotta box out, we gotta get deflections.' Her IQ is unbelievable, she's been great for our team."

Graduate forward Kaitlyn Walker (Camillus, N.Y./West Genesee/Onondaga C.C./St. John Fisher) concludes her collegiate career with over 1,000 points and 900 rebounds between her time at Onondaga and St. John Fisher.

 "(Kaitlyn is) a team player," said Grimes. "She played her role, she kept us together. In the back of the bus, in team meetings and stuff you always hear her giggling so she was the ultimate teammate."

The 2023-24 Le Moyne women's basketball team compiled a 14-2 conference record in the program's first season as a Division I member of the Northeast Conference. The .875 conference winning percentage is the best mark in program history.

The Dolphins closed the regular season on a seven-game win streak, and had the most dominant defense among all NEC teams.

After earning the no. 2 seed in the NEC Tournament, the Dolphins advanced to the title game, marking the program's third-ever appearance in a conference championship game, and the first since 2018-19.

Le Moyne captured two of the five major NEC All-Conference awards. Mary Grimes was named the Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year, her second coach of the year award in three seasons as the program's leader, and Lytoya Baker was named NEC Defensive Player of the Year, an award that she also won in the NE10 in 2022-23.

The Dolphins played 21 road games in 2023-24 and nearly claimed 10 road victories for the second consecutive season.

Picked to finish eighth in the NEC Preseason Coaches Poll, Le Moyne far outperformed expectations and claimed six NEC regular season sweeps, and defeated every NEC team at least once.