MARCY, N.Y. – When they look back on the 2014-15 NEAC Women's Basketball Season, regardless of what happens in tomorrow's championship game, those who've paid attention to the league this year will agree that despite the seedings, there really was no true "favorite" heading into this season's NEAC Championship Tournament.

Sure, after a dazzling regular season the SUNY Poly Wildcats earned the overall number one seed with a 16-2 conference record. But the team they faced on Saturday, the NEAC South Division's #2 seed, won 20 games this year and finished 17-4 in the conference. The other semifinal game featured team's with overall records of 20-7 and 21-5. To put it bluntly, this year's tournament field featured a grand total of zero slouches. And anything can happen in a single game. Unfortunately for the tournament host Wildcats, that's exactly what happened.

Then again, after the first half such philosophizing was the last thing any of the SUNY Poly faithful had on their minds, as the Wildcats came out humming. The team jumped out to a 12-4 lead over the first five-and-a-half minutes of the game, forcing a 30-second timeout by the visitors.

The Nittany Lions seemed to regroup out of the play stoppage, and were able to pull just about even with the Wildcats over the next 7 minutes. A triple by Kyra Lunsford made it just 18-17 in favor of the Wildcats, capping a 13-6 run by the Nittany Lions.

Still, the Wildcats looked great. After Penn State Abington's run, juniors Geena Gallo (Ballston Spa, N.Y. / Ballston Spa) and Lauren Knowles (Salisbury Mills, N.Y. / Washingtonville) combined to score five of the Wildcats' next 6 buckets, taking a 30-23 advantage on a jumper by Gallo with 2:09 to go in the period.

The forward from Ballston Spa was unstoppable over the first 20 minutes, pouring in 14 points on 7 of 10 shooting. During the field-goal-fest with Knowles, Gallo hit a beautiful runner driving to her right, bouncing off one defender but finishing off the glass anyway. Knowles added 8 points and 5 rebounds on 4 of 7 from the field, and starting guard Barrie Brooks (Utica, N.Y. / Utica-Proctor) gave the home team a spark with 6 points on 3 of 5.

The Wildcats, who won games this year more through defense and getting good possessions than by shooting teams out of the building, hit an even 50% of their shots in the first half.

Which is why, while not necessarily alarmed, the savvy fan was at least a bit apprehensive that the Wildcats went into the half up by only four points, 32-28. Even though the Wildcats seemed to be clicking on all cylinders, the Nittany Lions weren't going away.

Such fears were temporarily assuaged when NEAC Rookie of the Year Molly MacLachlan (Marcellus, N.Y. / Marcellus) knocked down the home team's first three-pointer of the game with 18:56 to go in the game. The shot gave SUNY Poly a five-point advantage and seemed to provide an outside threat, about the only thing missing from the Wildcat offensive attack in the first half.

Some free throws by the visitors followed by a three-pointer by Kyra Lunsford erased that advantage in a hurry, however. Nittany Lion point guard Janaiah Elum whipped a nice pass from the top of the key to find Lunsford in the left corner for the shot, which gave Penn State Abington their first lead of the game, up 36-35.

And for a brief stretch, the wheels came off. The Nittany Lions hit two more 3-pointers while the Wildcats failed to get anything going on offense. Rattling off a 10-0 run from the 16:06 mark to the 11:18 mark, the visitors all of a sudden had a 9-point lead, up 46-37.

In danger of falling behind by double-digits, MacLachlan righted the ship with a "had-to-have-it" 3-pointer for the Wildcats. As was the case on the previous shot, it was Brooks finding the freshman with a terrific cross-court pass to the right wing. A few plays later a block by Gallo led to a layup on the other end for the junior, and the Wildcats were within 4.

As the home crowd began to sense the comeback, Brooks engineered a steal by tipping the ball away from Stephanie Keyes, then diving full-extension on the floor to secure the loose ball and call a timeout. With the frenzied crowd threatening to blow the roof off the place, the Wildcats hit free throws on four of their next five possessions, getting within two points at 48-46.

With just over 6 minutes remaining a hard foul sidelined a SUNY Poly player for what would ultimately be the rest of the game. Coming in to shoot the free throws for the injured player was Emily Alicea (Mohegan Lake, N.Y. / Lakeland). The junior calmly sank both shots to tie the game for the first time since early in the second half. Then, with 5:23 to go, SUNY Poly took the lead back on a beautiful play in which the Wildcats' lone senior Tierney McGlynn (Watervliet, N.Y. / Watervliet) whipped a pass from the opposite wing to Brooks for a layup as the junior guard cut across the paint.

Up 52-50, it might have been the play of the game were it not for the Nittany Lions next basket.

With neither team able to score over the next two minutes, the Nittany Lions called a timeout during a broken play, resulting in a side-out-of-bounds play with only 2 seconds on the shot clock. Out of the seemingly hopeless situation, the Abington point guard Janaiah Elum somehow got free along the right corner, squaring up for a catch-and-shoot three-pointer to put the visitors up 53-52 with three minutes to play.

What Wildcat fans couldn't have known after the implausible shot is that the next three minutes would belong almost entirely to the diminutive junior from Philadelphia. Including the three-pointer, Elum scored 9 of the Nittany Lions final 14 points, including a calm 6 for 6 from the free throw line. Stephanie Keyes also came up big for the visitors, hitting a running bank-shot late in the shot-clock to keep it a two-possession game in favor of the Nittany Lions, putting them up 59-54 with under a minute to go.

Over the final two-plus minutes, the Wildcats just couldn't get the big bucket they needed, managing just three points the rest of the way. With Elum making all her free throws, the visitors salted away a 64-55 upset.

Despite the loss, the players that helped guide the home team all season certainly showed up on Saturday. Gallo finished with 17 points and 6 rebounds to go along with a steal and a block, and Knowles recorded another double-double with 13 points and 10 boards. MacLachlan had 12 points and 5 rebounds, and Brooks led the team with 3 steals to add to her 8 points.

On the other side, Elum led all scorers with 20 points. She picked the Wildcats for 3 steals as well and grabbed 4 rebounds.

But perhaps the most impactful player for the visitors was forward Jessica Schmidt. Schmidt recorded the game's only other double-double with 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. More than half of her boards came on the offensive end, adding to the whopping 20 to 4 advantage the Nittany Lions held on second-chance points.

SUNY Poly finishes the season as the NEAC North Division Regular Season Champions and an overall record of 18-8. The Nittany Lions improved to 21-5 and will face the Morrisville State Mustangs in tomorrow's championship game at 2:00 pm.