Jan. 26, 2008

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Trailing Dayton for a majority of the game, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team had a chance to win the game in its final possession. Unfortunately for the Hawks, a three-pointer by senior guard Timisha Gomez hit the rim, but failed to fall through as the Flyers came away with a 56-54 win at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse Saturday.

Down 52-43 with 6:47 to go, Saint Joseph's slowly chipped away at Dayton's lead. The Hawks cut the deficit to 54-50 with 2:43 to play as sophomore guard Amy Gillespie collected two of her team-high 15 points from the line.

Following a laup by Brittany Holterman, which gave Dayton a 56-50 edge, Saint Joseph's got a driving layup by Gomez to put SJU within 56-52 with 2:12 left.

The Hawks (10-9, 2-2 Atlantic 10) defense stiffened and caused two successive Flyer turnovers, but SJU couldn't convert, finally getting a layup from freshman Sarah Acker with :09 remaining to cut the deficit to 56-54.

Saint Joseph's fouled immediately, sending Ashley Armstrong to the line for a one-and-one. The Dayton guard missed the front end, and the Hawks rushed the ball up the court. With time expiring, Gomez lifted a three-pointer from the left-hand side, only to have it bounce off the iron.

In the first half, Saint Joseph's jumped out to an early 6-4 lead to start the contest as sophomore forward Ashley Logue tallied a pair of layups during the stretch.

Dayton (17-4, 3-2 A-10) answered back quickly, using a 14-2 run from 15:45 to 11:12, taking an 18-8 edge on a Kiki Lund. The Flyers defense stepped up during the streak, holding the Hawks to just 1-of-9 from the field during that streak.

The Flyers extended their streak to 34-20, but Saint Joseph's answered back with a 10-2 run over the final 3:11 to cut the deficit to 36-30 at halftime. Hawks' senior guard Amy Wold buried a three with two seconds left in the half to cap the run as SJU finished just 11-of-28 from the field (39.3 percent), while Dayton went 15-of-29 (51.3 percent).

For the game, Saint Joseph's shot just 21-of-58 from the floor (36.9) percent, and 6-of-18 from three-point range. At the other end, the Flyers went 24-of-55 (43.6 percent) and 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) from behind the arc. The Hawks held a 41-26 advantage on the boards, but committed 20 turnovers to Dayton's 14.

Individually, Gillespie led SJU with 15 points on 3-of-3 shooting from three-point range and 6-of-6 from the line, while Gomez added 12 points and six rebounds. Hawks' freshman forward Alexis Johnson added a career-best 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting to go with four rebounds and a steal off the bench.

Nikki Oakland was the only Flyer in double digits, scoring a game-high 16 points to go with eight rebounds and four blocks.

The Hawks return to action Wednesday, January 30, at Temple. Game time is set for 7 p.m.