Box Score

New York, NY – Senior center Juanita Whyms (Far Rockaway, NY/Stella Maris) led all scorers with 17 points and had a game high 23 rebounds for her 17th double-double of the season, but it would become her final performance in a Hawk uniform as the sixth-seeded New York University Violets used a second half surge to outlast Hunter 70-51 in the quarterfinal round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference [ECAC] Championship Tournament held at the Hunter Sportsplex on Wednesday night.

The game got off to an interesting start as neither team was able to score a point until NYU junior center Chrissy Kilmurray put a shot in from inside the pain with 17:22 on the clock. Later in the half, Hunter claimed a seven point, 13-6 lead, but would watch that disappear as the Violets fought back and eventually grabbed a 16-15 lead with 8:55 to play. When the first half buzzer sounded, the Violets found themselves heading into the locker room with a three-point, 31-29 lead.

Freshman guard Maggie Ely had the best half of her short collegiate career, scoring a game high 16 points on 6-6 shooting from the field, 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. For the Hawks, Whyms scored ten points and had grabbed 14 boards.

Then things just fell apart for the Hawks in the second half as they went scoreless for a little over seven and a half minutes, while the Violets scored 16 points to open up an 18 point lead. However, after scoring their first points of the half, Hunter went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to eight points with 10:18 to play. The Violets answered back with seven unanswered points and eventually used a 13-0 run to claim a 23 point, 67-44 lead with 4:24 left in the game.

Ely finished as NYU’s top scorer, despite not scoring a point in the second half. Sophomore forward Erica Franke added ten points for the Violets as the only other individual to score in double digits. For Hunter, junior guard Megan McKenna (Rockaway, NY/Midwood) finished with 13 points and eight rebounds as Hunter’s only other player to finish in double figures.

Whyms closes out her two-year Hunter career with 575 points, 604 rebounds, 71 steals, 62 blocks, shot .562 from the free throw line and .415 from the field in 53 games.