RICHMOND, Va. - Led by upperclassmen Natasha Cloud and Ashley Robinson, seventh seed Saint Joseph's battled for 40 minutes against second seed Dayton, exemplifying "The Hawk Will Never Die" motto in Friday's Quarterfinal matchup of the Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Championship. But the Flyers proved too much in the end as the Hawks fell 80-61 at the Richmond Coliseum.
Helping the Hawks to postseason appearances each of the last five years, a pair of Big 5 titles, and the 2013 A-10 Championship, the pair appropriately teamed up for SJU's final basket on Friday as Cloud found Robinson in the lane for a layup with 1:06 to play. The pair would come sub out for the final time 26 seconds to standing applause from the Hawk faithful in attendance.
Robinson, a graduate student who missed her first two seasons due to injury but returned to become a starter, finished the game with a team-best 15 points and added six rebounds an assist, a steal and a blocked shot. She finishes her Hawk career tied for 10th all-time in blocked shots (79) and 19th in rebounds (506).
The Hawks' vocal leader, Cloud posted 13 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in her final game in Crimson and Gray. Coming to Saint Joseph's after playing as a freshman at Maryland, Cloud proved to be one of the top guards in Hawk history as she capped her career third all-time in assists (582), ninth in steals (174), 16th in rebounds (535) and 20th in scoring (1049).
For the game, both teams came out aggressive. Playing tightly over the opening eight minutes, Dayton (24-5) began to pull away from the Hawks midway through the half. Ahead 18-15, the Flyers went on an 18-3 run over a four minute span to open a 36-18 advantage on pair of free throws by Jenna Burdette at 7:00.
Saint Joseph's (13-17), which went 1-of-6 from the floor and 1-of-2 from the foul line during Dayton's run, responded though as a jumper by Ciara Andrews capped a 6-0 spurt to bring the Hawks within 40-30.
Dayton would end the half on a 4-3 run to take a 44-33 lead into halftime.
The Hawks would cut the deficit to nine twice early into the second stanza, but the Flyers answered, pushing their lead to as many as 27 as they held SJU to 25 percent shooting for the half (7-of-28) and 32.8 percent for the game (19-of-58).
As a team, Saint Joseph's hit 21-of-28 from the foul line, but shot just 2-of-10 from three-point range and turned the ball over 13 times to Dayton's 11.
Individually, junior forward Sarah Fairbanks finished with a game-high 10 rebounds and added nine points, while Andrews and sophomore guard Kathleen Fitzpatrick each finished with nine points apiece.
Amber Deane's game-high 22 points paced four Flyers in double figures as they shot 47.5 percent overall (28-59), hit 21-of-29 free throws and 3-of-10 three-pointers.
Game Notes: Freshman Chelsea Woods finished with six points and four rebounds...Classmate Adashia Franklyn finished the season as the team leader in blocked shots (32) and had a rebound and blocked shot Friday...Redshirt sophomore Jordan Strode added two rebounds...Sophomore Mackenzie Rule and freshman Candace Belvedere each played one minute...With the loss, the Hawks' streak of five straight postseason appearances was snapped.
