BOCA RATON, Fla. – A two-point game at the halftime break was broken open with a 22-12 Paladin run as the Saint Joseph's women's basketball squad fell to Furman, 63-48, in the title game of the Florida Atlantic University Holiday Classic, held at FAU's Abassinio Court on Saturday afternoon. The Hawks, who had defeated Harvard by 24 points in Friday's semifinals, drop to 5-6 overall while the Paladins improve to 8-4.

Junior guard Mary Sheehan led all SJU scorers with 13 points (6-of-11 FG) while freshman forward Claire Melia chipped in nine points (4-of-10 FG) and seven rebounds.

For their performances in SJU's win over Harvard and loss to Furman, Sheehan and Melia were named to the FAU Holiday Classic All-Tournament Team.

How It Happened
• Q1 - Trailing 3-2 just over a minute into the game, Furman went on a 15-4 run, which included back-to-back-to-back three-pointers, to take a 17-7 advantage at the 5:30 mark. Melia responded with a jumper (4:52) and a three-pointer (4:05) to pull the Hawks back to within five, 17-12, and the Hawks held the Paladins scoreless over the next 2:16 before a Sheehan jumper (1:49) cut the Crimson and Gray's deficit to three, 17-14. Furman responded, but with 26 ticks remaining on the scoreboard, Melia grabbed her own offensive board off of a missed three-pointer and battled her way through three Paladin defenders to bring the Hawks back to within three, 19-16, to close the first quarter.

• Q2 - In front of her home crowd, freshman guard Kaliah Henderson hit a jumper to open the second quarter (9:20) and sophomore forward Katie Mayock converted a lay-up (8:56) just 24 seconds later to give the Hawks' their first lead since the opening minutes of play, 20-19. Sophomore guard Katie Jekot would close out SJU's 6-0 run by stealing the ball on one end and hitting a jumper on the other (6:46) to extend the lead to three, 22-19, and the Hawks and Paladins would battle to knot the score multiple times over the next six-plus minutes before Furman would pull ahead on a lay-up with 25 seconds remaining before the halftime break, 26-24.

• Q3 & Q4 - Furman opened the second half on a 14-4 run and would go on to hit four three-pointers and hold the Hawks to 12 points in the third quarter. The Paladins then shot 45.5 percent from the field in the fourth and held SJU scoreless in eight attempts from beyond the arc to take home the 15-point victory.

Behind the Boxscore
• The Hawks were hurt from three-point range, shooting 2-of-20 for the game (0-of-14 after the first quarter) and didn't get to the free throw line for the entirety of the contest.

Up Next
Saint Joseph's closes 2019 by hosting Navy (5-5) in the Hawks' non-conference finale next Monday, December 30. Opening tip is set for 7:00 p.m. in Hagan Arena.