Jan. 21, 2007
Box Score
SAINT LOUIS, MO -
Trailing by as many as eight in the opening stanza, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team downed Saint Louis, 70-68, Sunday at Bauman-Everhardt Center for head coach Cindy Griffin's 150th career win.
Despite the early deficit, the Hawks led by nine, 66-57, with just under four minutes remaining.
It became a bit hectic over the remaining time for Saint Joseph's as the Billikens used an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to 69-68 with 25 seconds remaining.
Saint Louis had an opportunity to take the lead as senior Ayahna Cornish missed a pair of foul shots.
Fortunately for SJU, sophomore guard Jen Oyler stepped in front of a Saint Louis pass and maintained possession.
Hawks' senior Whitney Ffrench made the first of two free throws, but missed the second, allowing the Billikens to tie or win with 3.3 seconds left. On the rebound, Saint Louis' Theresa Lisch's desperation three pointer fell well short.
In the first half, The Hawks got on the scoreboard first on a three-point play by sophomore guard Jen Oyler in their opening possession, but Saint Louis rallied, scoring 10 straight to open a 10-7 advantage on free throw by Amy Klotz at 16:14.
Saint Joseph's trailed again by seven, 18-11, but strung together an 11-4 run over the next 3:41 to tie the game at 22-22 on a layup by senior guard Ayahna Cornish at 7:57.
With the game knotted at 22, the Billikens opened their biggest lead of the half, eight, behind a 10-2 run. A free throw by Rachel Diener with 5:06 remaining in the first half capped the scoring drive.
Saint Joseph's would remain close, and trailed by five 41-36 as Cornish knocked down a pair of free throws with 2.1 seconds remaining.
With the victory, the Hawks improve to 10-8 on the year and 3-2 in the Atlantic 10. Saint Louis falls to 8-11 on the year with the loss and 0-5 in the A-10.
Cornish finished with a game-high 24 points and 12 rebounds to lead the way for SJU.
Saint Joseph's returns to action Wednesday, January 24 when the Hawks host Penn at 7 p.m.
