Women Advance to Final Four!

The bench tells the story.

Rochester improved to 23-6 with the victory. Kean won 29 straight games against Division III competition after losing to Division I Rutgers University on opening night. The Cougars finished 29-2.

This will be Rochester’s third appearance in the Final Four, its first since the 2003-04 season. The Yellojwackets will play Hope College of Michigan. The games will be played at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill. The semifinals are Friday with the third place and championship games on Saturday.

The Yellowjackets got balanced scoring. Jodie Luther and Amy Woods scored 14 points. Melissa Alwardt added 10. She grabbed 10 rebounds. Woods had six. Madeline Korber added seven points and six rebounds.

Naimah Clemons led Kean with 19 points. Brittany Powell scored 17, including five three-point goals. Tiffany Patrick had 11 points and 13 rebounds before fouling out in the closing seconds. Angelica Bermudez had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“They are just so quick,” Rochester head coach Jim Scheible said of Kean. “Their defense is always around the ball. We knew we had to take care of the ball. And, we had to win the battle within the 10-foot radius of the basket.”

Clemons drove for a layup after a steal, pushing the Cougars in front, 56-54, with 8:05 to play. Rochester scored eight straight – a jumper by Alwardt, a hook in the lane by Woods, a layup from Michelle Ketcham, and a layup from Korber. That pushed the Yellowjackets ahead, 62-56, with 4:29 remaining.

Kean stayed within five, 66-61, with 1:03 left after Patrick made two free throws. Caroline Bernal-Silva hit an eight footer off the left baseline to push the lead to seven, 68-61, with 37.4 seconds left.