FDU starts postseason with rout of Saint Francis in NEC quarters

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

TEANECK, N.J. — Coaches will tell you the season is divided into three parts: Preseason, conference season and postseason.

FDU, after running through the second part with an unblemished record, kept its winning ways intact as the third and most crucial part of the campaign commenced Monday.

The Knights defeated Saint Francis, 81-56, in the NEC tournament quarterfinals at Bogota Savings

Bank Center, and advanced to the semifinals, where they will host Le Moyne on Thursday.

FDU (28-4) started fast and never looked back. The Knights began with an 11-0 run against a Saint Francis team they faced just four days earlier in their

regular season finale, and established a 28-11 lead after the first period.

Sophomore guard Ava Renninger led the way for FDU with a versatile 19 points, six rebounds and five assists. Kailee McDonald added 15 and freshman Reese Downey, in her first conference tournament outing, amassed 13 points.

“It’s not easy to play a team a third time, then back-to-back,” FDU coach Stephanie Gaitley said.

FDU defeated Saint Francis in its final regular season game last Thursday, 61-39.

“The first (playoff) game is always the hardest,” Gaitley said. “I think the kids responded very well. Every night, someone else is stepping up, and that’s a big difference.”

Points of Emphasis

Running the table: FDU, despite its personnel losses, was in a position to repeat as NEC champion, per many observers. But to go undefeated again?

“We had a conversation this summer,” Gaitley said. “Ava said, ‘I don’t see us going undefeated.’ (Renninger jumped in lightheartedly, saying, ‘I didn’t say that!’) We both thought that we were such a mixed group. Great kids. The year before, everybody had a lot of seniority. This group was m mixed with a lot of new kids. We didn’t know what we would get from the freshmen, then Lilly (Parke) went down. There were a lot of question marks (and) we played through some tough games early.”

“Winning close games early, like at Manhattan, helped us. These guys are understanding the details as we go along. I’m so proud of them. On a given night, someone different is stepping up.”

Renninger added her thoughts, saying, “the freshmen stepped in and saw our culture, and have done a tremendous job along the way. A lot of us have been overlooked and underrecruited. It’s hard to beat a ‘chip on the shoulder’ hard-working team.”

Unselfishness: A key trait and reason behind the success of this FDU team.

“Our offense is second-most important,” Renninger said. “Defense is our priority, but we have five scorers on the floor. Anyone can score, and what’s great is we move the ball. We are a very unselfish team, that’s why you see someone different step up on a given night.”

“I had the most tonight, but I could get two points. If I have to rebound, that’s what I will do. I think you can say that for the other players on the team.”

Defensive concerns: The score might hint this was an easy win for FDU, but Saint Francis did pose defensive concerns for Gaitley’s group.

“A lot of teams we play have at least one kid who is not a threat from three,” she said. “In this case, everyone out there had hit double-figure threes. You can’t just drop off someone and help in the lane. We had to switch on a lot of screens, which meant that our kids were sometimes playing a guard. I think the rest of the time, we will face teams that allow us to be who we are on defense.”

Rebounding: FDU won the battle of the boards by a convincing 48-25 margin, 15-5 on the offensive end. FDU’s Akeelah Lafleur grabbed a game-high nine boards. As has been happening most of the season, several players contributed to the Knights’ prowess on the glass. On this night, there were six players with five or more rebounds.

“In practices, we demand it,” Gaitley said of the emphasis on rebounding. “We shoot with the lid on the basket. No fouls, get after it. In games, play through. If you don’t box out, you come out. It’s a reminder that that is what got us here. We do a lot of rebounding drills. We go five to the boards.”

Resilience: The Red Flash made a few brief runs, none to seriously challenge, yet they kept playing.

“It’s not over until it’s over,” acting head coach Raphael McNeill said. “We want to keep fighting, keep fighting, it’s a testament to these young ladies, a very resilient group. “They play hard and that’s why it hurts me. I wanted to give them an opportunity to keep going. We just ran up against a bus tonight, Fairleigh Dickinson, my hat is off to them. Whenever we got on a run, Ava would find a way with a three or finding someone else. We were fighting, but just didn’t have enough energy to keep it going.”

End of an era: The final buzzer sounded an end to Saint Francis’ time in Division I. For decades, the small school in Loretto, Pa. had built a rich and storied tradition. Next season, the Red Flash will play at the Division III level.

“We have to start a new (era),” McNeill said. “It is the end of an era. We got our 400th (NEC) win, now we have to start with our first PAC win. It’s definitely going to be difficult, but I’m looking forward to the opportunity if it’s presented to me. Saint Francis will have the opportunity to thrive. We have to find some quality student-athletes and keep going.”

Notes. In the tempo-free recap, it was a 67-possession game with FDU owning a sizable 121-84 edge in offensive efficiency. The Knights shot 48 percent from the floor and 9-of-31 from deep. Saint Francis hit for 40 percent, but was 0-for-7 from beyond the arc.

Saint Francis had a slight 42-40 edge in points in the paint, but FDU had a resounding 14-2 lead in second-chance points. FDU also had success attacking the basket, especially in the second half.

“Once you see the team fouls (expand) from the opponent, you want to attack the basket,” Gaitley said. “We’ve given such green lights to (outside) shooters. I don’t want to take that away. We identified the matchups and started to attack aggressively.”

“It was exciting,” Downey said of her first conference tournament experience. “I was a little nervous, but I thought I did a good job.”

That she did.