Jan. 30, 2010

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Saint Joseph's head coach Cindy Griffin earned her 200th career victory Saturday as her Hawks topped George Washington, 63-47, in women's basketball action at Michael J. Hagan Arena. Griffin, who earned her 150th win at Saint Joseph's on January 20 (vs. Dayton), is now 200-152 overall in 12 years as a head coach at SJU and Loyola (Md.).

Individually, Saint Joseph's senior forward Brittany Ford paced the Hawks' offense, scoring 19 of her game-high 23 points in the second half as SJU improved to 11-10 overall and 4-2 in the Atlantic 10.

With the Hawks trailing 30-29 early in the second stanza, Ford helped her team grab the lead for good, scoring seven of nine points during a 9-0 run that saw SJU take a 38-30 advantage on a Ford layup at 15:01.

The Colonials (5-15, 2-5 A-10) cut the deficit to 42-38, but Saint Joseph's answered back on both ends, outscoring the Colonials 13-0 to put the game away. Ford added a pair of layups and senior Amy Gillespie scored seven of her 12 points during the run, while George Washington was held to 0-for-9 from the field and a pair of turnovers.

The Hawks, who shot just 32.3 percent in the first half (10-of-31), went 13-of-24 shooting in the second half (54.2 percent) and finished at 41.8 percent for the game.

In a close-fought first half, the lead changed hands twice and was tied four times with Saint Joseph's taking a 27-22 edge into the locker room as senior forward/center Ashley Logue knocked down an eight-foot jumper with time running out.

For the Hawks, Ford finished 10-of-13 from the floor and 3-of-3 from the foul line, while adding two rebounds, a steal, a block and an assist. Gillespie grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to go with 12 points and three assists, while freshman guard Ashley Prim handed out a game-high five assists to go with six points.

Tiana Myers scored 17 points to lead the Colonials, while Sara Mostafa grabbed game-high eight rebounds to go with 11 points. As a team, George Washington shot 18-of-54 from the floor for 33.3 percent.

Saint Joseph's caps its two-game home stand against Temple Tuesday at 7 p.m.