SPARKILL, N.Y. – Starting out of the gate hot, the D'Youville University women's basketball team cruised to a 74-53 win over Dominican University on day one of the St. Thomas Aquinas Basketball Challenge.
 
The Saints (1-0) were led by junior Anna Jankovic (Averill Park, N.Y.) with her first double-double of the year with 20 points and 10 rebounds (3 offense, 7 defense) while Brianne Moxley (Penfield, N.Y.) had a game-high 23 points.
 
DYU came out of the gate firing, going up 12-0 in the first five minutes of play. Jankovic and Moxley provided the offense during the stretch with Jankovic scoring seven points and Moxley with five. The Chargers scored a pair of baskets late in the frame but the duo of Jankovic and Moxley answered with made shots of their own as DYU led 19-8 after the first quarter.
 
Dominican came into the second quarter with a counter, going on a 16-7 run to make it 26-24 with over two minutes to go until the break. Moxley was able to get the Saints a two-possession lead once again, knocking down a three-pointer off the feed from Jankovic. Jankovic added a layup late in the half as D'Youville took a 31-26 lead into the break.
 
Looking to create some more separation, the Saints went on a 9-0 run to take a 49-32 lead with just over three minutes left in the third quarter. During the run, DYU got contributions from Jankovic, Kayla Creighton (Innisfil, Canada), Stella Mollica (Shillington, Pa.), and Jaelyn Vleer-Elliott (Waterville, N.Y.). D'Youville saw their biggest lead in the third quarter with a layup from Mollica to go up 55-37.
 
DYU continued to cruise well into the fourth quarter as Moxley and Carla Cano Torrubia (Melilla, Spain) knocked down back-to-back threes to make it 65-42 with 6:20 left in the game. Isabella Kostyal-Larrier (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) added her own three-pointer the old fashion way, making the layup off the dish from Morgan Giancaterino (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and converting the and-one to help put the game away.
 
The Saints went 24-for-51 (47.1 percent) from the field and 7-for-21 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc while the Chargers went 20-for-64 (31.3 percent) from the floor and 4-for-22 (18.2 percent) from three-point. DYU also had the advantage on the glass, grabbing 43 boards to Dominican's 33 boards.
 
D'Youville will be back in action tomorrow as they face American International at 3 p.m.