SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - Outscoring St. Francis Brooklyn 31-14 in the second half, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team downed the Terriers, 64-42, Saturday in the semifinals of the Seton Hall Thanksgiving Tournament. The Hawks will now face the host Pirates at 2:30 p.m. Sunday for the tournament title.
With the victory, Saint Joseph's head coach Cindy Griffin tied the all-time record for wins at Hawk Hill, 248, that was set by Women's Basketball Hall of Famer Jim Foster (1978-91).
Up by just five at the half, the Hawks (2-3) came out of halftime with strong performances at both ends. Scoring in three of its first four possessions, Saint Joseph's quickly pushed its lead to 11, 39-28, on layup by Sarah Fairbanks at 17:59.
The Hawks had their lead trimmed to nine twice from there, but that was as close as the Terriers would get as the SJU's defense held them to just 5-of-25 from the floor for the stanza.
After a slow start to the game, Saint Joseph's pulled ahead by eight over St. Francis Brooklyn as a three-pointer by Natasha Cloud gave her team a 29-21 lead with 4:13 to go in the half.
The Terriers bounced back with a 7-0 run to cut SJU's lead to one, but a layup by Fairbanks and a jumper by Cloud gave the Hawks a 33-28 lead going into halftime.
For the game, Saint Joseph's shot 45.8 percent from the field (27-of-59) and hit 4-of-9 from three-point range and 6-of-8 from the foul line. Using their size to their advantage, the Hawks outrebounded the Terriers 46-25 and outscored them 38-18 in the paint.
Individually, Cloud had a game-high 16 points and seven assists and added eight rebounds. Junior Ciara Andrews added 11 points and Fairbanks had 10 points and four blocked shots. Rookie Adashia Franklyn had a game-high 11 rebounds and added seven points and four blocked shots.
At the other end, St. Francis Brooklyn shot just 28.8 percent from the field (15-of-52), 18.2 percent from behind the arc (4-of-22) and 8-of-10 from the foul line. Eilidh Simpson had a team-high 12 points for the Terriers.
GAME NOTES: The Hawks are now 1-0 all-time versus the Terriers...Ashley Robinson finished with eight points, eight rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot...Kathleen Fitzpatrick scored eight points and had three assists...Jordan Strode added two points off the bench...Chelsea Woods had five rebounds to go with two points...Jessica Pongonis finished with an assists...Mackenzie Rule added an assist.
