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Hackensack, NJ — From opening day to the final buzzer of the tournament final, FDU was the team to beat in the NEC. And now, the Knights have the championship to back it up.
Led by Teneisia Brown's career-high 34 points, the Knights completed a perfect NEC season in dominant fashion, rolling past No. 2 seed Stonehill 66-49 in the NEC Tournament final at Bogota Savings Bank Center. FDU went 16-0 in the regular season, stormed through the NEC Tournament with three wins by a combined 75 points and claimed its first NEC title since 1992 and third overall.
It was a championship a long time in the making for the Knights, who had come close in recent years but made sure history wouldn't repeat itself. Winners of 22 straight games, FDU holds the third-longest active streak in the nation and has been untouched for over three months.
FDU's Stephanie Gaitley made history of her own, becoming just the fourth coach in NCAA history to lead four different programs to the NCAA Tournament.
With 29 wins - one shy of the NEC record - and a .906 winning percentage, both ranked ninth in the country, this FDU team cemented itself among the best the NEC has ever seen.
Having already clinched the NEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament last Thursday with a win over Chicago State, the Knights proved they still had plenty of motivation on Championship Sunday.
Brown, who was named the NEC Defensive Player of the Year, delivered one of the most explosive offensive performances the NEC has seen in 38 iterations of the conference championship game.
Starting out the day by draining each of her first five shots from the field, the Jamaican-born baller helped the Knights race out to a suffocating 12-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Brown and the Knights never looked back from there.
Coming one point shy of matching Stonehill's combined offense for the entire first half, Brown's sizzling 7-of-10 shooting out of the gates gave FDU a comfortable 35-21 lead heading into the halftime break.
With its sights set on its first-ever NEC Tournament title, Stonehill refused to go down without a fight. All-NEC first teamer Sharn Hayward opened the third quarter with a layup just 11 seconds in, and in a blink of an eye, the Skyhawks brought their deficit down to just four points at 37-33 on a 12-2 run.
The Skyhawks would not get any closer, though. Abby Conklin stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer, before Brown, who had been held scoreless for the first nine minutes of the stanza, followed a layup with four-straight free throws to give the Knights a comfortable nine-point cushion heading into the fourth.
Brown, a two-time All-NEC First Team performer, did not take the foot off the pedal in the second half. Finishing the game at 57.9 percent from the field (11-of-19) - including a perfect 12-for-12 effort from the charity stripe - Brown, who has put up double figures each of her last 14 games, led all scorers with 34 points, a career-high effort for the center/forward.
Becoming the first NEC player to drop 30-or-more in an NEC Championship game since Robert Morris' Artemis Spanou netted 30 against Saint Francis U in 2014, Brown's 34 points were the most in a title game since Saint Francis U's Jess Zinobile put up 33 on Monmouth in 1999.
In wins over No. 8 LIU, No. 6 Chicago State and the Skyhawks, Brown went off for 28.3 points per game — 13.8 more than her season average of 15.0 a game — to earn NEC Tournament MVP honors.
Joining Brown on the NEC All-Tournament Team was fellow Knight Lilly Parke, who contributed nine points and seven boards to FDU's championship win.
Hayward and NEC Most Improved Player Brooke Paquette, who netted 12 points apiece, represented Stonehill on the NEC All-Tournament Team. Chicago State rookie Aiyanna Culver rounded out the five-member squad.
FDU will learn its NCAA Tournament opponent during the NCAA Selection Show, which airs Sunday evening at 8 pm on ESPN.
NEC All-Tournament Team
Teneisia Brown, FDU (MVP)
Lilly Parke, FDU
Sharn Hayward, Stonehill
Brooke Paquette, Stonehill
Aiyanna Culver, Chicago State