Jan. 20, 2010

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - In arguably its gutsiest performance of the season, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team jumped out to an early 15-point advantage over Dayton, only to see the Flyers take the lead with five minutes left in the contest. Down 59-55, the Hawks ended the game with a 13-3 flurry to pull out a 68-62 win over Dayton Wednesday evening at Michael J. Hagan '85 Arena and help the Hawks improve to 2-1 in the Atlantic 10 and 9-9 overall.

Up 40-27 entering the second half, Saint Joseph's kept the Flyers at a distance for the opening six minutes, holding a 51-38 lead with 13:34 to go in the game.

The Hawks offense, which shot an impressive 57.7 percent from the floor (15-of-26) and 58.3 percent from behind the arc (7-of-12) in the first half, would go cold for a prolonged period as Dayton scored 15-straight points from 13:16 to 8:31 to take a 53-51 advantage on a Casey Nance layup. The Flyers caused five of Saint Joseph's 20 turnovers and held the Hawks to 0-for-5 from the field as they regained the their first lead since the opening four minutes.

Seeing their lead evaporate, the Hawks got a jumper from senior guard Mariame Djouara in their next possession to tie the game at 53 all with 7:48 to go.

After exchanging baskets, Dayton (14-4, 2-1 A-10) took advantage of its size, dumping the ball into the low post to Kristin Daugherty, who got a layup to put her team up 57-55 with under six minutes to play. A pair of free throws from Justine Raterman would give the Flyers their biggest lead of the game, 59-55, with 4:42 left to play.

Saint Joseph's sophomore guard Katie Kuester got the offense going with a deep three pointer from the wing to make it a 59-58 game. And a pair of Dayton misses later, senior forward Brittany Ford sneaked in a layup from the right post off an assist from freshman guard Ashley Prim to regain the lead for the Hawks, 60-59 with 3:45 left in the game.

Coming out of the final media timeout, Saint Joseph's caused another Dayton miss, and Ford crashed the boards on the offensive end to tip in a shot by Djouara to up the Hawks' lead to 62-59.

Following a missed three-pointer from Raterman, Djouara ran off some clock and knocked down a 12-foot jumper to give the Hawks a commanding 64-59 edge with 1:08 to go. Saint Joseph's defense would hold the Flyers to just 1-of-8 from the field over the final four minutes, with the Hawks' offense knocking down four free throws in the final seconds to preserve the win.

In the first half, Saint Joseph's used a 19-4 run over a four-minute span to open up a 15-point advantage on the Flyers. With the game tied at 8-8, the Hawks' offense caught fire, knocking down four of their season-best 11 three pointers during the stretch, with freshman guard Shelby Smith hitting back-to-back three pointers to make it a double-digit lead.

Down 27-12, Dayton used a 9-4 streak to make it an eight-point game, 31-23, but Saint Joseph's offense kept rolling as the Hawks took a 40-27 edge into halftime. Saint Joseph's held Dayton to just 32.4 percent (12-of-37), while rolling up the second-most points in a half this year.

For the game, Saint Joseph's shot 44.4 percent (24-of-54), knocked down a season-best 11-of-22 from three-point range and went 9-of-15 from the foul line. At the other end, Dayton shot just 32.9 percent for the game (23-of-70), went just 2-of-15 from behind the arc (13.3 percent) and finished 14-of-19 from the foul line (73.7 percent).

Individually, Djouara led the Hawks with 13 points and eight rebounds, while Kuester paced SJU's 36 bench points with 12 of her own on four three-point field goals. Sophomore guard Michelle Baker added nine points and Ford finished with eight points as nine of 10 Hawks scored on the evening.

Raterman and Nance combined for 22 points and 16 rebounds for the Flyers.

Saint Joseph's returns to Saturday at Charlotte. The game is set for a 4 p.m. tip and will be televised nationally on CBS College Sports.