GRANVILLE, Ohio – Allegheny junior Emma Pellicano scored the 1,000th point of her career with her first bucket of the evening, but the Gators dropped a 64-53 decision to the Denison Big Red in the quarterfinal round of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament on Wednesday night at Livingston Gymnasium.

Pellicano finished the contest with a team-high 17 points, shooting 7-of-13 from the field while burying a pair of three-pointers, tacking on three boards and a team-high seven steals.  Fellow third year Ifeyinwa Uwazie picked up 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, snagging four boards.  Sophomore Meaghan Wilby grabbed a team-high six rebounds, including three offensive boards, while senior Marina Scarantino picked up a team-high five assists.  Fellow fourth year Kendall Hoffman added six points, four rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal.

The junior scored her 1,000th point with 14:09 remaining in the first half, becoming the 15th member of the exclusive club that includes a slew of Allegheny Hall of Famers.  The junior is she fourth Gator to hit the milestone under the tenure of head coach Kate Costanzo, joining the ranks of Jill Gregory '11, Heidi Goeller '12 and Daryl Ford '13.  Pellicano has enjoyed a stellar junior campaign for the Gators, ranking sixth in points with 14.9 points per game entering Tuesday's clash after earning NCAC Newcomer of the Year honors during the 2012-13 season and an All-NCAC First Team honor last year.

For Denison, sophomore Jordan Holmes set a program record in free-throw percentage, going 12-of-12 from the charity stripe, ending with 26 points and 16 rebounds.  As a team, the Big Red shot 18-of-22 from the free-throw line, tacking on 12 second chance points and 34 points in the paint.  In comparison, Allegheny only visited the line four times while snagging 19 points off of 19 Denison turnovers.

The Big Red picked up right where they left off after last Saturday's matchup against the Gators at Livingston Gymnasium, opening the game on an 8-0 run while holding the Gators without a bucket for nearly five minutes of game time.  Back-to-back buckets by Uwazie and Hoffman closed the gap before Pellicano's milestone basket sliced the Denison lead to two points with 14:09 remaining in the first.  Denison responded with a 12-4 run to earn a double-digit lead with 10:10 remaining in the opening stanza, building the lead to a first half-high 14 points with 3:53 remaining.

The Gators began to charge back in the waning moments of the first, snagging momentum heading into the break with four field goals over the final 2:26 of the half, capped by a layup by Wilby with the buzzer sounding in the first half.  Allegheny performed well from the floor, shooting 14-of-32 for a 43.8 field goal percentage, but struggled from beyond the arc, shooting 2-of-8 from three-point range.

In the second half, Pellicano jump-started the Allegheny offense with a three-pointer, starting a 6-0, half-opening run for Allegheny that brought the Gators to within four points at 38-34.  Another game-altering run by Denison put the Big Red ahead, 43-36, as Denison would regain a double-digit lead with 12:51 remaining in the contest.  A pair of jumpers by Uwazie, a basket by Hoffman, a transition three-pointer by Pellicano and a jumper in the paint by the junior sliced the Denison lead to one point.

A 6-0 run by Denison swung the momentum back into the favor of the home team.  A jumper by the Big Red's Mary Margaret Habel put the squad up nine with 32 seconds remaining, as the Big Red went 3-of-4 from the line over the final 30 seconds to keep the game out of reach until the final buzzer.

Allegheny closes out the season with a 14-12 record, opening and closing the 2014-15 campaign with historical milestones.  The Gators won the 2014 Greg Richards '08 Memorial Tip-Off Tournament with a 63-45 win over Case Western Reserve, during which head coach Kate Costanzo earned her 100th career coaching victory.