Dec. 9, 2009

Box Score

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Saint Joseph's women's basketball team dropped its Big 5 opener at Villanova, 56-42, Wednesday evening at the Pavilion. The Hawks got a combined 30 points from seniors Mariame Djouara, Brittany Ford and Amy Gillespie, but fall to 3-6 overall with the loss.

Trailing 24-20 at the half, Saint Joseph's quickly found itself down 28-20 to start the second half, but quickly responded. Behind a 9-0 run, the Hawk took a 29-28 advantage on a jumper by Djouara at 13:10.

Unfortunately for Saint Joseph's, its offense went cold from there. The Hawks shot just 2-for-13 from the floor over the next 9:31, while the Wildcats outscored the Hawks 22-4 to take a commanding 50-33 and pull away for the win.

In the first half, the game remained close for the entire 20 minutes with the score tied five times and the lea changing hands eight times. Villanova used a 10-4 run to erase a 16-14 SJU and take a 24-20 edge into halftime.

As a team, Saint Joseph's shot 15-of-51 from the floor (29.4 percent), 2-of-11 from three-point range (18.2 percent) and 10-of-15 from the foul line. Villanova finished 19-of-42 from the field (45.2 percent), 3-of-14 from three-point range (21.4 percent) and 15-of-18 from the foul line (83.3 percent). The Wildcats outrebounded the Hawks 33-30, but SJU grabbed a game-high 10 offensive rebounds.

Laura Sweeney paced Villanova with 15 points.

Saint Joseph's returns to action this Sunday when the Hawks host Drexel at 2 p.m.