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2024 Northeast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament
(all games played at home of higher seeded team)
    
Quarterfinals
Monday, March 11
    
#8 Saint Francis U at #1 Sacred Heart, 7 pm - WATCH | LIVE STATS
#7 Stonehill at #2 Le Moyne, 7 pm - WATCH | LIVE STATS
#6 LIU at #3 FDU, 7 pm - WATCH | LIVE STATS
#5 CCSU at #4 Merrimack, 7 pm - WATCH | LIVE STATS

Watch Live: All games to air on NEC Front Row

Semifinals
Monday, March 14
    
Lowest Remaining Seed at Highest Remaining Seed, 12 or 2 pm
3rd Highest Remaining Seed at 2nd Highest Remaining Seed, 12 or 2 pm

Watch Live: ESPN+, YES,NEC Front Row
    
Championship
Sunday, March 17
    
Watch Live: 12:00 pm on ESPNU, ESPN+
   
Northeast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament

Things You Really Need To Know...55 Of 'Em!

1. Since 1994, the NEC Tournament champion has received an automatic bid to the NCAA’s Big Dance. Mount St. Mary’s earned the league’s first-ever auto berth and faced Iowa in the 1994 NCAA First Round.

2. The NEC Women’s Basketball Championship Game will reach a national TV audience via ESPNU for the 17th consecutive year. This year’s title tilt is set for Sunday, March 17 at 12:00 pm ET.

3. The NEC Tournament format was altered in each of the previous two seasons. Due to COVID-19, the usual eight-team field was trimmed to four in 2020-21, while in 2021-22, the tournament featured a nine-team field for the first time in conference history.

4. Sacred Heart head coach Jessica Mannetti is the only current NEC coach to win a conference championship with their respective team, as the Pios ended a 10-year title drought in the 2022-23 campaign.

5. The No. 1 seed has won it all 21 times in 37 years.

6. In the past 10 years that the full tournament field has been contested (excluding 2021), there has been at least one upset in the quarterfinal round.

7. In the 28 years that quarterfinals have been contested, there has been at least one upset in 18 of those years. 

8. The 2023 season marked the second time in seven years that the No. 1 seed frll in the championship game.

9. The top seed has advanced to the NEC Tournament final 28 times, but has fallen short of the title on seven occasions. 

10. The top four seeds have advanced to the semifinals just 10 times in the 28 NEC Tournaments that have contested quarterfinal rounds (1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2023).

11.  Just seven teams have captured the tournament championship in consecutive seasons. Mount St. Mary’s and Robert Morris have each gone back-to-back twice and Saint Francis U has strung together consecutive titles on three different occasions.

12. The only other current NEC coach to have coached a team to the NEC Tournament title game is FDU first-year head coach Stephanie Gaitley. Previously spending six seasons as LIU's head coach from 2002 to 2008 and three at Monmouth from 2008 to 2011, Gaitley piloted the Blackbirds to the Championship Game in 2007-08 before she brought the Hawks to the title game in the 2010-11 season. 

13. Gaitley’s combined eight NEC tournament appearances and seven postseason victories and at LIU Brooklyn and Monmouth are both second amongst current NEC head coaches.

14. Three NEC head coaches will be making their postseason debuts: Way Veney (CCSU), Mary Grimes (Le Moyne) and Trisha Brown (Stonehill).

15. The top two seeds (No. 1 FDU and No. 2 Sacred Heart) tangled for the NEC Championship for the 13th time in 2022-23, and the second time in the past three years.

16. In 2022-23, Sacred Heart became the first No. 2 seed to win it all since 2007-08, when Robert Morris defeated No. 4 LIU in 2007-08. The Pios were also the first No. 2 seed to defeat the No. 1 seed in the Championship Game since 1995-96, when No. 2 Saint Francis U took down No. 1 Mount St. Mary’s.

17. Sacred Heart etched its name in school and conference history during the postseason, securing a 57-47 victory over Southern in the NCAA Tournament First Four matchup. The triumph not only marked SHU’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win in any sport but also became the inaugural postseason victory for an NEC women’s basketball team.

18. Sacred Heart’s Ny’Ceara Pryor put a bow on an unprecedented freshman season with her stellar play in in the 2022-23 NEC Tournament. Becoming the first player in NEC history to win the NEC Player of the Year, NEC Defensive Player of the Year and NEC Rookie of the Year, the guard added to her Triple Crown season by earning NEC Tournament MVP honors.

19 Prior looks to become the fourth player in NEC Tournament annals to go earn back-to-back NEC Tournament Most Valuable Player, and the first since Robert Morris’ Anna Niki Stamolamprou in 2016 and 2017.

20. Just five players have repeated as NEC Most Valuable Player.

21. Sacred Heart has qualified for the NEC Tournament every year since joining the league in 1999, with the lone exception being in 2020-21, when only semifinals and finals were contested due to COVID-19.

22. Sacred Heart rides the NEC’s longest win rally into the postseason since 2012-13, when Quinnipiac defeated Northeastern in its non-conference finale before going perfect in the 18-game conference slate (19 straight wins).

23. The unanimous preseason No. 1 pick is the top seed in the NEC tournament for the first time since 2015-16, and the fourth time since joining the conference for the 1999-2000 campaign.

24. Saint Francis U has the most tournament wins (49) and most NEC titles (12) of any conference team.

25. Sacred Heart’s four titles are second-most among current NEC members.

26. Saint Francis U has made it through to the semifinal round more often than any NEC program. The Red Flash have been amongst the tournament’s final four on 20 occasions and proceeded to advance to the Championship Game 18 times.

27. FDU has been a top-four NEC Tournament seed in four straight seasons.

28. FDU looks to advance to the semifinals for the fourth time in as many seasons in 2023-24, which would mark the longest active streak by an NEC team. 

29. FDU is making its 10th-straight appearance in the NEC Tournament in 2023-24, which includes a bid in the 2020-21 season when only semifinals and finals were contested, marking the longest postseason rally among current teams. 

30. Taking the 2020-21 postseason out of consideration (the field was limited to just four teams), Sacred Heart has made 25-straight appearances. 

31. With the NEC’s new policy in place, which permits reclassifying institutions to participate in the NEC postseason championships in each of the four years of the reclassification process, Le Moyne and Stonehill will both be postseason eligible this season. 

32. If Le Moyne or Stonehill were to win the NEC Tournament championship, the tournament runner-up will advance to the NCAA Tournament as the NEC’s automatic qualifier. If both reclassifying members were to reach the Championship Game, the league will stage an “AQ Qualifier” game between the two non-advancing semifinal teams. This will serve as a decisive game to determine the team that will secure the NEC’s spot in the NCAA Tournament.

33. In the 29 years since the Northeast Conference discontinued the six-team bracket, the No. 1 seed has won 19 times and has only missed the final on six occasions.

34. St. Francis Brooklyn is the only team to post a perfect record in Championship Games, claiming the title in its lone appearance in 2015.

35. Saint Francis U owns the most dominant stretch of consecutive NEC Tournament championships. The Red Flash ran the table from 1995 to 2000, winning five straight titles in that stretch. SFU nearly pulled off the feat again, winning four-in-a-row in 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05.

36. Saint Francis U became the lowest seed ever to win the event when the No. 5 seed Red Flash went all the way in 2010. St. Francis Brooklyn later matched that feat in 2015.

37. The two lowest seeds to ever meet in the Championship Game were No. 4 Robert Morris and No. 6 Wagner back in 1991. RMU prevailed, 69-61.

38. Merrimack looks to become just the NEC Tournament newcomer to post wins Monmouth in its win at least one game in its first two postseason appearances. The Hawks, who joined the conference for the 1986-87 campaign, won it all in their debut season (1987) before they won a semifinal game the following year in 1988.

39. The 2015 St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers (15-18) and 1991 RMU Colonials (13-17) are the only teams to win the tournament while finishing the season with a sub-.500 winning percentage.

40. The largest margin of victory in a tournament game (39) came in Quinnipiac’s 72-33 triumph over Saint Francis U in the 2013 Championship Game.

41. Sacred Heart and Saint Francis U became the first-ever teams to score at least 100 points in a tournament game, and they did it while facing one another in a 2014 quarterfinal tilt. SFU prevailed, 132-124, in double overtime as the two teams accounted for the second-highest scoring game in NCAA Division I history. Both teams had exceeded the 100-point mark by the end of regulation play.

42. St. Francis Brooklyn is responsible for the lone 8-over-1 upset in NEC Tournament annals. The Terriers defeated top-seeded LIU in the 2007 quarterfinal round.

43. Current Sacred Heart head coach Jessica Mannetti leads all active coaches in NEC Tournament wins (10).

44. Former Robert Morris head coach Sal Buscaglia owns a conference-record 20 tourney wins.

45. Saint Francis U’s Mary Markey (1998, 1997, 1996, 1995) and Jess Zinobile (2000, 1999, 1998, 1997) were named to the NEC All-Tournament team in each of their four years along with Robert Morris’ Anna Niki Stamolamprou (2017, 2016, 2015, 2014).

46. Jess Zinobile, an NEC Hall of Famer, is the only three-time NEC Tournament MVP (2000, 1999, 1997) in league annals.

47. Saint Francis U alumna Jess Kovatch set the record for most points (103) in a single NEC Tournament (three games), capturing MVP honors while leading the Red Flash to the 2018 title. Kovatch also hit a conference-record 19 three-pointers over that three-game span.

48. Robert Morris’ Chinata Nesbit, a former two-time Tournament MVP, owns the lone triple-double in tourney history (2008 QF vs. SFBK).

49. Quinnipiac’s Ashlee Kelly redefined “monster game” in 2004 when she poured in 38 points and grabbed 28 rebounds during a quarterfinal showdown with FDU. Two days after her tournament record 28-rebound performance, she hauled in 26 boards. Kelly still owns the top two spots on the tournament’s all-time single-game rebounding list.

50. Eight players have earned both Tournament MVP and Player of the Year accolades in the same season, with Sacred Heart’s Ny’Ceara Pryor being the last player to do so in 2022-23. Saint Francis U’s Jessica Kovatch did it in 2018 after Robert Morris’ Anna Niki Stamolamprou achieved the feat in 2017. Monmouth’s Linda Wilson was honored with both awards during the league’s inaugural season in 1986-87, followed by Mount St. Mary’s Susie Rowlyk in 1993-94 and Saint Francis U’s Jess Zinobile in 1999-2000. Amanda Pape of Sacred Heart was tabbed with both honors in 2005-06 and Robert Morris’ Artemis Spanou snagged both awards in 2014.

51. In March 2022, No. 8 Sacred Heart edged No. 9 CCSU in the NEC Tournament’s first opening-round game since the 1997 playoffs.

52. Of teams that have won at least one NEC Tournament championship, Wagner has suffered the longest drought. The Seahawks’ last NEC Tournament title came in 1988-89, 34 years ago.

53. FDU’s title-less drought is the second longest. The Knights’ last NEC Tournament championship came 32 years ago in 1991-92.

54. Of the five current members that have won a NEC Tournament championship, Wagner and LIU are the only teams to have just one title to its name.

55. Central Connecticut and Merrimack are the two current teams (with the exception of Le Moyne and Stonehill) to have yet to win it all.
   

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Team-By-Team Capsules

#1 SACRED HEART (21-9, 15-1 NEC)

• Riding a 12-game winning streak — the program’s longest since 2008-09 (21 games) — the Pioneers’ 21 wins are the most since the 2012-13 season when they went 22-11.
• Sacred Heart rides the NEC’s longest win rally into the postseason since 2012-13, when Quinnipiac defeated Northeastern in its non-conference finale before going perfect in the 18-game conference slate (19 straight wins).
• The unanimous preseason No. 1 pick is the top seed in the NEC tournament for the first time since 2015-16, and the fourth time since joining the conference for the 1999-2000 campaign.
• Sacred Heart has qualified for the NEC Tournament every year since joining the league in 1999, with the 2021 season being the only exception when only semifinals and finals were contested due to COVID-19.
• The Pioneers have won four NEC Tournaments in 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2023. They have made six championship game appearances.
• The top seed has treated the Pios well, as they are 3-1 as the No. 1 team with titles in 2006, 2009 and 2012. The only year that bucked Sacred Heart’s success as the No. 1 seed was in 2016, when it lost to Robert Morris in the title game.
• The Pioneers are 26-19 all-time in the conference tournament with a 13-8 record in the quarterfinals.
• The defending league champs look to repeat as winners of the NEC tournament for the first time in program history.
• They would become the second consecutive team ­— and the eighth in the history of the NEC — to pull off back-to-back conference titles, as Mount St. Mary’s won two-in-a-row in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
• The Pioneers have been on the up-and-up since the 2022-23 season. They doubled their six league wins from the 2021-22 by going 12-4 in the NEC in 2022-23. This season, Sacred Heart has again increased its win total by finishing the league slate with a 15-1 mark. 
• The 15 victories in league play are the most for the Pios since they won 16 in an 18-game slate back in 2015-16.
• Sacred Heart head coach Jessica Mannetti leads all active coaches in NEC Tournament wins (9).
• Under Mannetti, the Pios made five semifinal appearances, including four straight from 2016 to 2019. Sacred Heart has been to the title game twice in her tenure, in 2016 and the tournament winning 2023 campaign.

#2 LE MOYNE (16-13, 14-2 NEC)

• The NEC Presidents’ Council unanimously voted last spring to eliminate access restrictions to NEC Championships during an institution’s transition to Division I. As a result, Le Moyne is immediately eligible to compete in the NEC postseason in 2023-24.
• The Dolphins will become NCAA Tournament eligible in 2027-28 at the completion of their mandatory four-year reclassification period.
• Le Moyne joined Merrimack as teams to finish with winning conference records (13-5 - 3rd place) and in the top-four of the NEC standings in their inaugural Division I season.
• Le Moyne has amassed a 7-3 record in the friendly confines of Ted Grant Court, including a 7-1 mark against fellow NEC opponents.
• Just two NEC opponents eclipsed the 60-point threshold against the Dolphins this season: LIU (62 on Jan. 27) and Sacred Heart (73 on Feb. 3).
• Holding conference foes to a league-best .345 clip from the field during the regular season, Le Moyne limited league opponents to just 51.7 points per night, a figure that ranks first in the conference.
• The Dolphins’ .875 winning percentage in conference play is the second-best mark among the 10 other institutions that have joined the NEC in the years following its inception as a women’s league in 1986. Le Moyne’s mark ties that of Mount St. Mary’s, which won 14-of-16 games and finished on top of the league standings in its debut NEC season in 1986-87. Monmouth owns the best winning percentage amonst NEC newcomers (16-0 in 1986-87).
• Le Moyne will attempt to become the second team to win the NEC Tournament in its first season after joining the conference. Monmouth won it all in its initial season back in 1986-87. 

 
#3 FDU (13-16, 11-5 NEC)

• FDU will be making its 26th overall appearance in the NEC Tournament.
• The Knights have now qualified for each of the past nine NEC Tournaments.
• FDU has been a top-four seed in each of the past five years.
• It will be the program’s first postseason appearance under first-year head coach Stephanie Gaitley.
• Gaitley is the conference’s only current coach to have NEC postseason experience at multiple institutions as a head coach. She piloted LIU Brooklyn to tournament appearances in each of her five years at the helm of LIU Brooklyn (2002-08), going 4-4 with a title game run in 2007-08. Gaitley also led Monmouth to the semifinals (2008-09), the quarterfinals (2009-10) and the title game (2010-11) in her three seasons as head coach of the Hawks. 
• FDU is a two-time NEC Tournament Champion (1990, 1992).
• A win over LIU would propel the Knights into the tournament’s semifinals for the 10th time in program history, and the fourth time in as many seasons.
• Since winning it all in 1992, FDU has advanced to the NEC Tournament title game just one time, despite six semifinal appearances since then.
• FDU will be facing LIU in the postseason for the fifth time, and the first time since 2008. LIU owns the advantage with a 2-1 record, with FDU’s lone win coming in the semifinals in 1992, the last year the Knights won the conference title.
• In the quarterfinals, FDU is 0-2 against the Sharks.
• The Knights have won seven-in-a-row regular-season game against their quarterfinal opponent in a rally that dates back to a 57-36 regular-season triumph on Feb. 5, 2021
• The Knights were last seeded third in 2020, a year that they defeated Bryant in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals, which were cancelled due to COVID-19.
• FDU ran out to a 6-0 start at home against NEC competitors, but finished 6-2 with defeats to the top-two teams in the circuit in Sacred Heart and Le Moyne.
• FDU has qualified for each of the past two WNITs in 2022 and 2023.

#4 MERRIMACK (11-18, 8-8 NEC)

• Merrimack qualifies for postseason for the second straight season in 2023-24.
• The Warriors have made the NEC Tournament in each of the two seasons that they have been eligible. 
• Having completed its mandatory four-year reclassification period, Merrimack is NCAA Tournament eligible for the first time in program history.
• Fourth-year head coach Kelly Morrone has piloted the Warriors to each of their NEC postseason appearances.
• Last season, Merrimack made its NEC Tournament debut as the No. 3 seed.
• This marks the second time in as many seasons that the Warriors host a quarterfinal tournament game.
• Merrimack and Central Connecticut will meet for the first time in the postseason.
• In the regular season, the two teams split a pair of games, with each team scoring wins on their respective home courts.
• Merrimack had a hot start to February, going 4-1 to open the month, but since then, the Warriors have dropped each of their past three games.
• The Warriors have strung together double-digit wins in back-to-back seasons for the first time since joining the Division I rankins and the NEC for the 2019-20 campaign.
• Last year, Merrimack was victorious in its first-ever NEC postseason game, defeating No. 6 Saint Francis U by way of a 66-60 final
• The Warriors went on to fall in the semifinals at No. 2 Sacred Heart, the eventual tournament champion.

#6 LIU (8-21, 5-11 NEC)

• This year marks the 25th time that LIU qualifies for the NEC Tournament.
• LIU looks to make its first semifinal appearance since 2017-18.
• This year marks the 24th time that LIU qualifies for the NEC Tournament.
• LIU looks to make its first semifinal appearance since 2017-18.
• LIU’s lone championship came in 2001 when the third-seeded Sharks upset top-seeded Mount St. Mary’s.
• LIU has made four NEC title game appearances, with its most recent one coming in 2010.
• LIU is 16-24 all-time in the NEC Tournament. The Sharks have made advanced to the semifinals nine times and the title game four times.
• Under fourth-year head coach Rene Haynes, the Sharks will be making their fourth postseason appearance (Due to COVID-19, the usual eight-team field was trimmed to four in 2020-21).
• LIU enters the postseason having won two of its past three games.
• In their two most recent wins, the Sharks put up 70 points in an overtime win over Wagner and 74 in a regular-season finale win over Stonehill, marking the second and third time they eclipsed the 70-point mark this season.
• The Sharks are 0-2 against FDU this season.
• This year marks the first time LIU meets FDU in the postseason since 2008. The two teams last clashed in the quarterfinals in a game that saw LIU win by a 64-53 final.
• LIU’s first — and only — NEC tournament title came in 2001 when it defeated top-seeded Mount St. Mary’s as the third seed by a 70-61 final.

• Stonehill makes its first-ever NEC postseason debut as the No. 7 seed.
• The Skyhawks were ineligible for the NEC Tournament in its first Division I season in 2022-23, but due to the league’s Presidents’ Council unanimously voting to elminate restrictions to NEC Championships during an institution’s transition to Division I, they are permitted to compete for a league title.
• Like Le Moyne, Stonehill is immediately elgible to compete in the NEC postseason in 2023-24, but the Skyhawks remain ineligible for the NCAA Tournament until they complete their mandatory four-year reclassification period in 2026-27.
• The Skyhawks will attempt to join Monmouth, which won the NEC Tournament title in its initial season back in 1987-88, in becoming the second team to win the conference championship in its postseason debut.
• Stonehill has won just once on the road this season, a 66-56 triumph at Saint Francis U on Feb. 24.
• Le Moyne holds the advantage in the all-time series at 2-0 with a pair of double-digit wins this year.
• The Skyhawks hold a commanding 27-10 lead against Le Moyne when the two teams were conference mates in the Northeast 10.
• Stonehill swept a pair of regular season games from Saint Francis U, the team that handed Le Moyne its first defeat of the NEC conference slate
• This season, the Skyhawks also defeated Wagner and they earned their first win against FDU since joining the league and Wagner

• Saint Francis U will be making the program’s 29th appearance in the NEC Tournament.
• The Red Flash have qualified for the NEC Tournament in each of the past nine years.
• Saint Francis U’s nine-season postseason streak is a league-best rally behind Sacred Heart, which has made the cut for the postseason every year since joining the league in 1999-2000 with the 2021 campaign being the only exception when only semifinals and finals were contested.
• Saint Francis U has captured a league-best 12 NEC Tournament championships, but seek its first conference title since 2018.
• The Red Flash’s 49 tournament wins are the most of any conference team.
• Saint Francis U is the only team in conference history to win five straight NEC Tournament titles from (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000). Saint Francis U also strung together four consecutive titles in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, before going back-to-back in 2010 and 2011.
• The Red Flash have been amongst the Tournament’s final four on 20 occasions, and have proceeded to advance to the Championship Game on 18 occasions out of 36 installments.
• Saint Francis U has made it through the semifinal round more often than any NEC program.
• The Red Flash own a league-best .754 winning percentage in the NEC Tournament (49-16).
• Saint Francis U is 19-8 in the quarterfinals, 18-2 in the semifinals and 12-6 in the Championship Game.
• Saint Francis U became the lowest seed to ever win the event when the No. 5 seeded Red Flash went all the way in 2010.
• Head coach Keila Whittington seeks her first-ever postseason victory at the helm of the Red Flash.
• Saint Francis U has struggled on the road, going 1-15, including 1-7 in league playThe Red Flash’s lone conference win away from Loretto came at Wagner on Feb. 15.
• This will be the eighth time Saint Francis U and Sacred Heart meet in the postseason, and the first time since 2019-20. The two teams met in three consecutive NEC Tournaments in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
• In two quarterfinal meetings, the Red Flash and Pios have split a pair of games.