COLONIA, N.J. – The 2026 East Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Championship Semifinals are set after first-round play on Wednesday night.
In the first round, third-seeded Molloy punched their ticket to Amherst, N.Y., as the Lions defeated sixth-seeded District of Columbia, 71-50. In the other first-round game, fifth-seeded Staten Island roared back with a big second half as the Dolphins defeated fourth-seeded D’Youville, 60-55.
With the wins, Molloy will take on second-seeded Mercy at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Daemen University, while Staten Island will take on top-seeded Daemen at noon in the semis.
No. 3 Molloy 71, No. 6 District of Columbia 50 - Box Score
Colleen McCullagh scored a game-high 23 points, while Rosa Rizzitelli had 21 points as the Lions advanced to the semifinals with a win over the Firebirds.
Molloy put four players in double figures as Sophia Yearwood had 13 points and Sharmeela Ugbogbo added ten for the Lions.
UDC got 18 points from Nhaikyia Smith and 14 points from Aliyah Eason in the loss.
Molloy led by as much as 23 points in the contest, showing 40.7 percent from the field and holding the Firebirds to just 30.8 percent from the field.
Ugbogbo had 12 rebounds, and Rizzitelli added ten caroms in the win. Rizzitelli had eight assists in the win.
Le’Asia Todd had 11 rebounds for UDC.
No. 5 Staten Island 60, No. 4 D’Youville 55 - Box Score
The Dolphins roared back from a 21-point deficit to take the win on the road to advance to the semifinals. CSI outscored the Saints 43-21 in the second half, taking the lead for good on a Kyra Rose layup with 5:42 left in the fourth quarter.
Giuliana Dito finished with 15 points for the Dolphins, while Rose had 12 points and ten rebounds. Shonyae Edmonds and Arielle Barnes each had 11 points in the win.
For D’Youville, Ava Pearson had 12 points for the Saints.
In the first half, the Saints held CSI to just 17 points taking a 34-17 lead at intermission. The lead went as high as 21 points with 42 seconds left until halftime.
Staten Island had just eight turnovers in the game, while Racky Kane and Dana Phelan had two steals each.