March 1, 2009

Box Score

DAYTON, OHIO - The Saint Joseph's women's basketball team dropped its regular-season finale at Dayton, 84-57, Sunday afternoon at the University of Dayton Arena. The Hawks finished with a 5-9 Atlantic 10 record and earned the 10th seed in next week's Atlantic 10 Tournament. Saint Joseph's will face the seventh seed, St. Bonaventure, at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

The Hawks started out well on offense, holding a 7-5 edge on a three pointer by senior guard Jenna Loschiavo with 15:55 to go in the first half.

From there though, Saint Joseph's gave up 10 straight points to the Flyers, with Dayton opening a 26-11 advantage with 7:56 to go on back-to-back baskets by Kristin Daugherty.

Saint Joseph's answered back with five straight points as a three pointer by freshman Katie Kuester brought SJU within 26-16 with 4:28 to go.

However the Flyers used a 10-6 run to end the half, breaking the Hawks' press several times to create open baskets. Both teams turned the ball over nine times in the first half as SJU shot just 37 percent from the field (10-of-27), while Dayton shot 41.9 percent (13-of-31) and went 7-of-7 from the foul line.

In the second half, the Hawks would get no closer than 14 points as Dayton held a 20-point lead for a majority of the stanza. Saint Joseph's shot just 35.3 percent in the second half (12-of-34), while the Flyers went 16-of-32.

For the game, Saint Joseph's shot 36.1 percent from the floor (22-of-61), 7-of-22 from three-point range (31.8 percent) and 6-of-7 from the foul line, while turning the ball over 17 times. At the other end, Dayton shot 46.0 percent from the floor (29-of-63), 5-of-11 from behind the arc (45.5 percent) and 21-of-23 from the foul line (91.3 percent) and out rebounded the Hawks 45-30.

Individually, Kuester paced SJU with a career-best 14 points to go with an assist and steal. Junior forward Ashley Logue was the only other Hawk in double digits, finishing with 11 points.

Dayton finished with five people in double figures, led by Justine Raterman's game-high 16 points.