The Northeastern women’s hockey team fell one game shy of the Frozen Four on Saturday in Hamilton, N.Y., losing to Colgate, 3-1, in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Breanne Wilson-Bennett, Olivia Zafuto, and Bailey Larson scored for the Red Raiders (33-5-1), who were making their first appearance in the NCAAs. Julia Vandyk made 23 saves for Colgate (33-5-1).
The ninth-ranked Huskies (19-17-3), winners of the Hockey East tournament, received their only goal from Andrea Renner, assisted by Lauren Kelly and Maddie Hartman.
Aerin Frankel made 33 saves for Northeastern, allowing two goals. Larson’s goal into an empty net with 50 seconds remaining iced it for Colgate.
Wilson-Bennett opened the scoring on a power play at 9:07 of the second period. Renner tied the game a little more than two minutes later. Zafuto notched the winner at 1:37 of the third period.
Men’s hockey
Boston College 4, Merrimack 3 — Chris Grando scored at 4:20 of overtime as the host Eagles (20-13-4) advanced to the Hockey East semifinals with a victory over the Warriors (12-21-4) and a sweep of their best-of-three quarterfinal series.
Mike Booth, JD Dudek, and Julius Mattila scored in regulation for BC, which will play crosstown rival Boston University in the conference semifinals. Northeastern and Providence will meet in the other semifinal. Joe Woll racked up 30 saves for the Eagles, who were the conference’s regular-season champions.
Johnathon Kovacevic, Ludvig Larsson, and Tyler Irvine scored for Merrimack. Irvine’s goal with 4:55 remaining in the third period sent the game into overtime.
Harvard 7, Dartmouth 1 — Adam Fox had two goals and two assists, Ryan Donato had a goal and three assists, and the host Crimson (14-12-4) stayed alive in the best-of-three ECAC quarterfinals with a convincing win over the Big Green (11-11-1).
Merrick Madsen stopped 21 shots for Harvard, which will play Dartmouth on Sunday in the deciding game to advance to the semifinals.
Nathan Krusko, Benjamin Solin, Ty Pelton-Byce, and Lewis Zerter-Gossage also scored goals for the Crimson.
Corey Kalk scored Dartmouth’s goal.
Men’s basketball
Villanova 76, Providence 66 — Jalen Brunson scored 31 points and Mikal Bridges added 25 and hit two 3-pointers in overtime to lift the No. 2 Wildcats (30-4) to a victory over the Friars (21-13) in the Big East tournament championship game in New York.
Villanova won its second straight conference tournament and and third in four years (losing in the 2016 final). They put the bow on a fantastic season that should have them earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Villanova had rolled to a pair of dominant victories in the tourney and held off a pesky Providence team that played its third straight overtime game and had to rally from a 17-point second-half deficit to send the game into overtime.
Alpha Diallo scored 22 points and Kyron Cartwright had 19 for the Friars.
UMBC 65, Vermont 62 — Jairus Lyles hit a long 3-pointer with less than a second left, lifting Maryland-Baltimore County (23-10) over the top-seeded Catamounts (27-6) in the America East championship game in Burlington, Vt.
The second-seeded Retrievers had lost 23 straight times to Vermont over 10 years, but rallied to earn their first NCAA Tournament trip since 2008.
The Catamounts led, 57-48, but didn’t make a basket in the final 8:21.
Lyles scored 27 points. He tied it with a deep 3 with 1:01 to go, setting up his last-second shot. Tre Bell-Haynes scored 18 for the Catamounts.
Peyton Henson scored 14 points, Ernie Duncan added 10, and Drew Urquhart had 7 with 10 rebounds for Vermont.
Rhode Island 90, Saint Joseph's 87 — Andre Berry scored 18 points, Fatts Russell made two crucial 3-pointers in the final six minutes, and the No. 25 Rams (25-6) rallied past the Hawks (16-16) in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament semifinals in Washington.
Rhode Island is the first No. 1 seed in the Atlantic 10 to reach the conference championship game since Saint Louis in 2013.
Jeff Dowtin added 16 points and 10 assists for Rhode Island, Russell scored 14 points, and E.C. Matthews had 11 for the defending tournament champions.
Shavar Newkirk had 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists for Saint Joseph’s, which routed the Rams, 78-48, last week. Saint Joseph’s appeared poised to deliver another upset while trying to extend its season, building an 11-point lead early in the second half.
Penn 80, Yale 57 — AJ Brodeur scored 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the Quakers (23-8) never trailed in their victory over the Bulldogs (16-15) in the Ivy League tournament semifinals in Philadelphia.
Second-seeded Penn will play No. 1 seed Harvard in the championship game Sunday.
Women’s basketball
Penn 57, Harvard 52 — Anna Ross scored 15 points as the host Quakers (21-7) eliminated the Crimson (18-10) from the Ivy League tournament with a victory in the semifinals.
Kaie Benzan scored 20 points and Taylor Rooks had 10 points and 12 rebounds for Harvard.
