Loretto, Pa. – The fifth-seeded Le Moyne College women's basketball team outscored fourth-seeded Saint Francis University 23-6 in the fourth quarter to claim a 62-51 road win in the Northeast Conference Tournament Quarterfinals Monday evening at SFU's DeGol Arena.

Le Moyne freshman guard Eli Clark (Oakhurst, N.J./Ocean Township), graduate forward Haedyn Roberts (Holland Patent, N.Y./Holland Patent) and junior guard Sierra Linnin (Valley Cottage, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) each scored in double figures during the win, which marked Le Moyne's first road playoff win since the 2018-19 season.

Clark led all scorers with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 from three-point range, and 2-of-2 from the line with five rebounds and three assists in 36 minutes played, while Roberts tallied her fourth double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Linnin provided 11 points on 4-of-7 from the field, including 2-of-4 from three-point range.

Clark scored eight of her points during the fourth quarter.

With her third field goal of the contest at the end of the first half, Roberts reached 1,000 points for her career, becoming just the 17^th player in program history to reach the milestone.

Senior guard Emily Florvil (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth) registered nine points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals in 29 minutes off the bench during the win, while senior forward Brianna Williams (Brampton, Ontario/Southwest Academy/Hartford) added seven points, five rebounds, four assists and one block.

Le Moyne's defense held Saint Francis to 35.1% shooting from the field and 51 points during the 40 minutes, which marks the fewest points that the Dolphins have allowed in a game this season.

Freshman guard Airah Lavy knocked down four three-point field goals to lead Saint Francis with 12 points, while junior guard Natalie Johnson also scored in double figures with 10 points, two steals and a team-high five rebounds. Junior guard Marissa Shelton and junior forward Julianna Gibson added eight points each for Saint Francis.

Le Moyne shot 13-of-20 from the free-throw line during the win while limiting SFU to just five attempts from the stripe.

Le Moyne held a 30-28 lead at halftime, but the Red Flash outscored the Dolphins 17-9 in the third quarter, with the help of three consecutive made threes from Lavy between the 3:28 and 0:49 marks in the period, to take a 45-39 lead into the fourth quarter.

With their season on the line, the Dolphins shot 7-of-11 from the field, including 4-of-6 from long range, and 5-of-7 from the line during the fourth, while holding SFU to 3-of-12 shooting from the field to register a double-digit victory and claim the program's third NEC Tournament win in the last two seasons.

Saint Francis claimed both regular season matchups between the two sides, with a 71-43 win in Loretto on January 11 and a 66-60 overtime win in Syracuse on February 6. 

The victory also marked Le Moyne's first road win of the season.

The Dolphins committed just nine turnovers during the 40 minutes, marking the second time this season that they recorded under 10 turnovers in a game. The other instance was in their final road game of the regular season at Stonehill on March 1.

The second quarter featured nine lead changes and four ties. A contested layup in the paint from Roberts with 52 second remaining in the first half, her 999^th and 1000^th career points, gave the Dolphins a 30-28 lead at the intermission. Shelton scored eight of her points during the second, while Le Moyne had five different players score in the period.

Lavy's first two threes in the third quarter gave the Red Flash a 42-36 lead. Following a jumper from Clark, Lavy responded with another triple at the other end, giving SFU their largest lead of the game at 45-38.

Florvil converted a free throw with under 30 seconds left to cut the deficit to six heading into the fourth.

The Dolphins went on a quick 8-0 run in the fourth with two threes from Clark at the 7:50 and 6:21 marks sandwiching a layup from graduate guard Megan Bodziony (Wakefield, R.I./St. Andrew's School/Fordham/Bryant). Following a layup from Gibson at the 5:53 mark, Roberts knocked down a triple and sank a free throw with 4:19 remaining to put Le Moyne in front, 55-49.

With just over a minute remaining, Linnin converted an old-fashioned three-point play to extend Le Moyne's lead to nine, then Clark sank two free throws with 38 seconds on the clock.

Le Moyne now advances to the NEC Tournament Semifinals, where they will meet second-seeded Stonehill College in North Easton on Thursday at 7:00 p.m..

POSTGAME QUOTES FROM LE MOYNE HEAD COACH NICK DIPILLO:
"I couldn't be more proud of our group. When we were here in early January, I thought it was rock bottom for our team. We were 0-15 at the time, we didn't play a good game of basketball, and in the back of my mind, I told my staff, I wished and hoped for the opportunity to come back here and give them another shot. I believe strongly in the character of this team... Couldn't be more excited for them. i think we showed a lot of heart and going into that fourth quarter, had every opportunity to fold it up, but they're not done yet, and I'm excited to lead them."

On winning first road game in the postseason: "(I told them) the same message I've been telling them all year: If we just stay in the play, and in the moment and do the right thing, make the play that's in front of you, we'll eventually break through, we'll be fine. I think it's one of those things, if you talk about it too much, it just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We knew we were getting really good shots, and we were fighting really hard on the glass. They had five offensive rebounds in the first six minutes of the game, and only four the rest of the way, so once we checked off that box, we just knew we had to find our flow offensively, and we were able to."

QUOTES FROM HAEDYN ROBERTS:
On surpassing 1,000 career points: "It feels great, I said it before that I wouldn't have been able to it without Coach Nick and the rest of my coaching staff and just my teammates too being able to play with them and them getting me open shots. So it's been great towards the end of my career to hit a milestone so big and be able to celebrate it with my teammates."

"I think we have a lot of leaders on the team. Myself, Emily, Bri, Megan, you could name everybody, Eli as a freshman, she's come in as a really big leader and taken a big role on this team and I think we know what we need to do and just being able to go out and execute it today was the biggest thing and I think our team knows the enormity of what conference (postseason) play is and if you lose you go home and we're not ready to go home yet."