Shawnee State's basketball teams are spending a weekend in New York with Friday and Saturday contests in the Empire State.

In a rematch of last year's AMC title game, SSU's women (26-0, 12-0) defeated Daemen College 59-45.

Freshman point guard Bianca Barton led the Bears with 15 points while Becky Babione added 11 with 11 rebounds.

"Bianca had a good game driving it, kicking it, and hitting some big shots," SSU womens coach Robin Hagen-Smith said. "We shot the ball about as poorly as we have all year. But as badly as we shot it, we had chances to put them away. We just couldn't."

Hagen-Smith credited her defense for the victory. The Bears shot 33 percent from the field, but held the Lady Wildcats to 26 percent shooting. The big stat for SSU: holding reigning AMC North Division player of the year and conference player of the week Sarah Bogardus to 13 points.

The forward had been averaging 25 points per game on the year.

"The stat sheet wasn't pretty for either team," Hagen-Smith said. "We played great defense inside and didn't give Bogardus anything easy. We got good help and our post players did a good job guarding her."

Mallory Albers and Jill Cropper each added nine for the Bears. Sarah Soroka added 13 and 12 rebounds for the Lady Wildcats.

In the late contest, Daemen's men defeated SSU 71-61.

Keelyn Franklin led SSU with 21 pionts, while Timothy Russell added 18.

Justin Patrick scored 11 with eight rebounds.

With 7:17 to play in the first half, the Bears were down 21-17, but allowed a 16-4 run, helping the Wildcats to take a 37-26 halftime lead.

SSU could only get the deficit back to single digits one time in the second half.

Ajay Rutledge led Daemen with 28 points and 15 rebounds.

Both teams play today at Roberts Wesleyan. The womens contest starts at 2 p.m. with the mens game following.