MEDFORD, Mass. – A hot-shooting first half propelled the FDU-Florham women's basketball team to a 68-54 victory over SUNY Geneseo in the NCAA Tournament Sectional Round at Cousens Gymnasium on Friday night.

Kyra Dayon (Trenton, N.J.) paced the Devils (29-1) with 21 points, five rebounds, and four steals in the victory.With her second rebound of the night, Dayon became the school's all-time leading rebounder, breaking Danielle Michlovsky's record of 852 career boards. Additionally, Dayon's six field goals tonight gives her 688 made baskets, which is also sets a new program record.  

With the win, the Devils advance to take on Tufts University in the "Elite 8" on Saturday night at 5:30 p.m. Last season, FDU-Florham topped the Jumbos 42-39 in the national semi-final game in Stevens Point, Wisc.

The Dayon sisters opened the game with a pair of treys, then Alyssa McDonough (Parlin, N.J.) came up with a steal and hit Alicia Cox (Vineland, N.J.) for a fast-break layup, which resulted in an 8-0 lead for the Devils and a Geneseo timeout.

FDU-Florham's swarming full-court pressure led to five turnovers by the Knights (25-5), including a 10-second violation in the game's first four minutes of action.

Following a Leigh-Ann Lively (Bangor, Pa.) 3-pointer, the Devils' press caused a five-second violation, which led to another trey by Lively just seconds later and a 21-11 FDU-Florham lead.

The Devils' defense continued to give the Knights problems and Shalette Brown's (Somerset, N.J.) steal and fast break lay-in stretched the defending champs' lead to 21 points, 36-15.

Guided by their sharpshooting from long-range, the Devils outscored the Knights 22-5 over the final nine minutes of the period and entered intermission with a 48-20 advantage.

Brown put an exclamation point on the half by grabbing the rebound off of a miss by Cox and tossing it in as the halftime buzzer sounded.

Kyra Dayon led the way for FDU-Florham with 11 points at the break and buried four of the team's 10 first-half 3-balls. The 10 treys is the second most in a single half by the Devils this season.

The Knights were re-energized coming out of the halftime locker room and used a 19-5 run to cut into the deficit.  Shannon McGinnis led the surge with 10 points over that stretch and brought the Knights within 14 at 53-39.

Kyra Dayon got the Devils back on track with her fourth 3-pointer of the night and after a textbook charge by Brown, Kara Dayon (Trenton, N.J.) converted a three-point play at the free throw line to extend the lead back to 20. However, FDU-Florham cooled down significantly, and after a blistering 10-19 first half, began the second stanza just 2-for-11 from behind the arc.

Geneseo took advantage of the Devils' shooting woes and used its size advantage to work the ball inside for high-percentage shots. With 3:56 to play, the Knights had clawed back within 10 at 60-50. The Devils scored one point over a six-minute stretch until a pair of Kyra Dayon free throws with 2:12 to go finally ended the drought.

The Devils followed up a 51.6 percent first-half shooting performance with a 13.3 percent effort in the latter stanza. Despite only making four field goals in the period, the Devils managed to hang on for the double-digit victory.

Kara Dayon finished with 13 points for the Devils, while Cox and Brown chipped in with eight points apiece in the win. Following the victory, head coach Marc Mitchell said, "It was a hard-fought game and our players showed tremendous resilience in the second half."

For the Knights, McGinnis double-doubled with 20 points and 16 rebounds on over 56 percent shooting.