STONY BROOK, N.Y. – The Stony Brook women's basketball team earned itself a trip to the America East Semifinals on Wednesday night after topping Vermont, 69-58, at the Island Federal Arena.
 
Senior G Shania Johnson (Frederick, Md.) went off for 16 assists on the evening, resetting her own America East record for single-game assists.
 
Offensively, the Seawolves were lead by sophomore F India Pagan (New London, Conn.) and senior G Jerell Matthews (Chicago, Ill.) with Pagan recording a career's best 21 points while Matthews added in 20.
 
This will be the team's first semifinals appearance since the 2015-16 season and the second in the Coach McCombs era.

McCOMBS REACTION
"I'm very proud of our team today. I thought we got off to, I don't know if it was a slow start. It wasn't as strong as we wanted it to be. So we really took that halftime to regroup and I thought we came out unbelievably in the third quarter especially and throughout the second half. Vermont had a great game plan as we just played them so it was everybody giving each other their best shot."
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• It was ultimately the third quarter that lifted Stony Brook over Vermont with the Seawolves laying in 28 points to the Catamount's 15 after trailing, 27-33, at halftime.
• In the third, the team shot a whopping 78.6 percent, hitting 11 of its 14 shots and all five of its attempts from behind the arc.
• The big momentum shift occurred midway through the period when Johnson hit a three to tie it all up at 39 points apiece and then followed that up with a layup to give Stony Brook the lead for good.
• Matthews then backed up the newly-found lead with a triple of her own to cap-off an 8-0 run.
• Pagan and Johnson each tallied 11 points in that frame with Pagan hitting five of her six shots.
• Johnson and Matthews both combined for the team's five makes from three in the third period.
• In the first half alone, Johnson had recorded 10 of her assists, helping the team on all but one of its 11 made field goals.
• Johnson broke her own conference assists record with 2:12 left in the fourth quarter, assisting Matthews on her sixth and final three of the game to tally 16 helpers.

NOTES

• Johnson is just one made three away from tying her school record in single-season three-point field goals (95).
• With her 14 points and 16 assists, Johnson nabbed her eighth double-double of the season.
• She had originally set the league standard in single-game assists after recording 15 against New Paltz back in November.
• Matthews also ranks fifth in the same category with 66 on the season, surpassing her total of 63 from last year.
• Additionally, Matthews tied her career high in rebounds with eight on the evening and notched her fifth 20-plus point game of the season.
• This is the second time Matthews has hit from distance six times, the other being against Binghamton on Feb. 6.
• Pagan's 10-of-13 performance (76.9 percent) from the floor is tied for the fifth-best single-game field goal percentage in program history.

UP NEXT
Stony Brook will remain as the three seed and travel to the two-seeded Hartford. The semifinal round will get underway at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Mar. 10 at the Chase Family Arena.