Lady Terriers lose in NEC semifinals

SFC Brooklyn ousted by top-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson

March 14, 2023 John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Sarah Bandoma earned All-Tournament honors, but the SFC Brooklyn's women's basketball team lost to top-seeded FDU in the NEC semifinals last week in Teaneck, N.J. Photo courtesy of SFC Brooklyn Athletics

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Brooklyn’s last hope for a Division I NCAA Tournament bid disappeared last Thursday night in Teaneck, N.J.

Sophomore center Sarah Bandoma scored a career-high 15 points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked a pair of shots, but the St. Francis Brooklyn women’s basketball team suffered a 59-40 loss at Fairleigh Dickinson in the semifinals of the Northeast Conference Tournament.

Bandoma, who was selected to the All-NEC Tournament team, went 6-of-11 from the floor and 3-of-5 at the free-throw line.

She did her best to keep SFC’s hopes of advancing to the NCAAs for the first time since 2015 alive, but the Knights (24-7) cruised into the NEC Final, using a 13-2 third quarter to pull away for good.

“So proud of the team…I mean, you know, third time’s a charm, I guess,” said FDU head coach Angelika Szumilo, who watched her team lose to Sacred Heart in Sunday’s NEC Championship game.

“The last two years we came up short,” she added. “So, this definitely means a lot more just to be able to persevere and I’m just so proud of our girls.”

Angena Belloso added 12 points and Eszter Varga finished with six points and a team-high eight rebounds for the Terriers (11-19), who went 10-8 in conference play this year, including a 58-51 triumph over Staten Island rival Wagner in last week’s NEC quarterfinal at The ARC.

Bandoma had 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting against the Seahawks, blocking a shot and grabbing seven rebounds. She was the only player on the All-Tournament team that did not participate in Sunday’s final.

The Providence, Rhode Island native pushed her season shooting percentage to nearly 50 percent with the two clutch efforts and also went over 200 career rebounds for SFC.

The Long Island University men’s and women’s teams and the SFC men’s squad were all eliminated in the opening round of the NEC Tournament last week.

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Losers of their first 13 games this season, the reigning NEC champion Long Island University men’s baseball team finally got off the schneid Sunday afternoon.

Jake Mastillo belted a pair of homers and Garrett Yawn pitched six scoreless frames as the Sharks, who reached the NCAA Regionals last year, avoided a three-game sweep against NEC rival Fairleigh Dickinson with an 8-5 victory in front of 103 fans at the Naimoli Complex in Teaneck, N.J.

Jake Mastillo homered twice Sunday as the LIU baseball team ended a season-opening 13-game losing streak at FDU. Photo courtesy of LIU Athletics

Mastillo upped his season home run total to a team-leading seven by backing Yawn’s longest career outing with a two-run homer in the top of the first inning and a solo shot in the fourth that gave LIU a 5-0 cushion.

The slugging right fielder finished the day 3-for-5 with a walk and four RBIs for the Sharks, who hadn’t won since blanking Bryant, 7-0, on May 29 to grab the conference’s automatic bid to the regionals.

Yawn (1-1) held the Knights at bay for most of the afternoon, limiting FDU to four hits and a walk while striking out six. Ty McInnes went 2 1/3 scoreless innings to close the game out, earning his first save.

The Sharks will host non-conference foe St. John’s University Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m., after the game was pushed back a day due to inclement weather.

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In local pro sports news, Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn isn’t sure when versatile swingman Ben Simmons will be back in action.

Following the Nets’ 122-120 win at Denver Sunday, which gave Brooklyn a 3-1 record thus far on their five-game road trip, Vaughn was asked when, or if, Simmons would be returning from the knee and back injuries that have sidelined him since the middle of February.

“Yeah, I think first of all I’ll just be pretty simple. He’s still managing his back and knee soreness,” Vaughn told the New York Post.

“He’s back home in Brooklyn. We’ll get a chance to kind of see where he’s at when we get back home after this trip.”

The Nets (39-29) have won five of their last six games and will try to close out their trip with a victory in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night before returning to Barclays Center Thursday to host Sacramento in the opener of a four-game homestand.

Ben Simmons is still out for the foreseeable future with knee and back issues for the Nets, according to head coach Jacque Vaughn. AP Photo by Jessie Alcheh

Simmons, acquired from Philadelphia last year in the trade-deadline deal that sent James Haden to the 76ers, is averaging 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists for Brooklyn this season after missing all of last year with mental-health concerns and a herniated disk.

With their recent resurgence following a four-game slide following the All-Star break, the Nets have moved into fifth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race, percentage points ahead of the East River rival New York Knicks.