WALTHAM, Mass – Despite a hot hand from Rachel Day (Horsham, Pa./Archbishop Wood), who shot 9-of-11 from the field to record a team-high 22 points, the Philadelphia University women's basketball team's 2015-16 season came to an end with an 88-74 loss to the New York Institute of Technology in the opening round of the NCAA Division II East Region Tournament Friday afternoon at Bentley University.

Day—who hit four 3-pointers—was one of four players in double figures for Philadelphia. Jessica Kaminski (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Wood) poured in 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Tori Arnao (Newtown, Pa./Archbishop Wood) added 13 points, while Bria Young (Philadelphia, Pa./Prep Charter) scored 12 points.

The third-seeded Rams finish the season with an overall record of 25-7, tying the 1997-98 team for the third most wins in program history. Philadelphia won the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference championship and was in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year, ninth overall appearance.

After falling behind 8-2, Philadelphia started to get into the flow of the game as the Rams made five of their next eight shots during an 11-0 run, capped off by a Day 3-pointer at the 4:19 mark of the first quarter, to take a 13-8 lead. The Rams owned a 17-12 advantage with 2:24 left in the quarter, but the Bears scored the final seven points to lead 19-17 after one. Shanice Allen started the run with two layups.

The Bears opened the second quarter outscored the Rams 9-2 over the first 2:13 to move ahead 28-19 on a Dina Ragab jumper. Coming out of a timeout called by Philadelphia head coach Tom Shirley, Young made a layup to start an 11-2 surge that got the Rams back within a point (31-30). Day led the run with five points.

Julie Williams swung momentum back in NYIT's favor with a corner 3-pointer at the 3:49. The basket was the beginning of a 10-0 run that gave the Bears their first double-digit lead of the afternoon (41-30). Philadelphia ended the quarter with 3-pointers from Day and Kelsey Jones (Lafayette Hill, Pa./Mount Saint Joseph Academy) in the final 1:18 to cut its deficit to 41-36.

NYIT regained a nine-point cushion when Allen drained a free throw with 1:54 remaining in the third quarter to make the score 62-53. Philadelphia responded with six of the next seven points to close the gap to 63-59 on an Arnao layup. The Bears scored the final five points of the third to extend the margin to 67-59.

After Williams started the final quarter with two free throws to put NYIT up by 10, Young and Kaminski drained back-to-back layups to bring Philadelphia back with 69-63 at the 7:11 mark. That would be as close as the Rams would get the rest of the game as the Bears scored the next eight points to move ahead 77-63. Ragab made a fastbreak layup with 3:15 to go to give the Bears a game-high 16-point lead (81-65).

Allen led NYIT (25-8)—who will play either American International or Bloomfield in round two on Saturday—got a game-high 25 points from Allen. Ragab recorded 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Philadelphia was the better shooting team in the contest, connecting on 49.3 percent of its shots (33-of-67) compared to NYIT's 45.5 percent (30-of-66). NYIT was able to get to the free throw line 22 times and shoot 86.4 percent (19-of-22), while Philadelphia shot just five free throws (3-of-5).

The Rams controlled the paint, outrebounding the Bears 39-35 and outscoring them 48-36.