ROSEMONT - The ultimate moment that has been the goal since the middle of October is now within the grasp of the Rosemont women's basketball team.

The Ravens moved one game away from a Colonial States Athletic Conference title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night, using a fierce defensive performance in the first half to down Wilson by a 70-41 margin before a capacity crowd at Alumnae Hall.

Rosemont has won 18 straight games dating back to Dec. 21 and improved to 23-3 overall (17-0 within conference play). They can win their first CSAC title on Saturday afternoon when they face Keystone - a 69-60 winner over Cairn in the other CSAC semifinal on Thursday night- in the championship game at Alumnae Hall. Game time is set for 4 p.m.

There has been a reason why the Ravens have been one of the hottest teams in America since the Christmas break and it has been defense. Rosemont entered play on Thursday holding opponents to 32 percent on defense. That is 10th best in the nation out of 432 teams.

In the first half on Thursday night, the Ravens held the Phoenix to 4-for-18 from the floor in the first half and just 30.2 percent (16 of 53) from the floor overall. They also forced 10 steals and 23 turnovers on the evening.

"We rely on our defense to get our offense going," women's head coach Rayne Reber said. "We take a lot of pride in keeping teams to one shot and done on defense. They have two very tough players offensively (in All-CSAC Kai Wyatt and Lindsay Pervis) and it wasn't just one person who had to defend them tonight. We always had weakside help and didn't allow splits on the drive. It was a great team effort to stop those two players from getting the points they normally get."

Wyatt had seven points for the Phoenix. Purvis- who was in foul trouble for most of the night- had four points.

That defense allowed the Ravens offense, which struggled early on in the first half, to find their sea legs and start to getting the ball into different areas of the floor. With Wilson running a triple team on CSAC Player of the Year Ashley Murray for most of the night, the rest of the Ravens offense had to find some gaps. Shawn Dowd (8 points), Ke'alohilani Naone-Carter and Ayanna Thompson (11 points) filled that void until Murray could get rolling in the second half as part of a 19 point, 18 rebound performance.

And now, the Ravens are on the doorstep of a grand finish to an incredible CSAC run. The NCAA goal that has been the focal point since practice began back on Oct. 15 is now within their sights. Only Keystone stands in the way.