AMHERST, Mass. – Tied 51-51 after three quarters, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball squad used a 13-2 run to pull away and earn a 76-69 road win over UMass on Friday afternoon. With their first Atlantic 10 road win of the season, the Hawks improve to 5-1 (3-1 A-10) while the Minutewomen drop to 10-4 (6-3 A-10).

"This is a great road win against a very talented UMass team," said head coach Cindy Griffin, whose Hawks shot 58.3 percent (7-of-12) from the field and 83.3 percent (10-of-12) from the stripe in the fourth quarter. "We played really smart, tough, and gritty. Our offensive efficiency was a combination of inside and outside production, which is growth from our last game. We need to keep growing as a team, and I know we will."

Saint Joseph's graduate student forward Alexis Santarelli (7-of-12 FG) and graduate student guard Alayna Gribble (6-of-10 FG, 3-of-7 3FG) dropped 15 points apiece while junior forward Lovin Marsicano chipped in 12 points (7-of-8 FT) and four assists and junior forward Katie Mayock hit for 11 points (4-of-5 FG) off the bench.

Sophomore guard Kaliah Henderson scored nine points while junior guard Katie Jekot dished out a team-high six assists.

How It Happened
Q1 - Mayock shot a perfect 3-of-3 from the floor en route to a team-high six points in the opening 10:00 as the end of the first quarter saw the score tied, 18-18. Santarelli added four points of her 11 first-half points as the Hawks shot 47.1 percent from the field; the Minutewomen shot 50.0 percent from the field but were held to scoreless from deep in three attempts.

Q2 - Saint Joseph's used a 6-0 run on back-to-back three-pointers from Gribble (4:33) and freshman guard Olivia Mullins (2:57) to pull ahead by five, 33-28, late in the third, but UMass responded with an 8-0 run of its own to take a 36-33 edge into the final 1:28 of the half. Santarelli hit a jumper outside of the paint with 35 ticks remaining to close SJU's deficit to one, 36-35, heading into the halftime break.

Q3 - Trailing by six, 44-38, at the 7:51 mark of the third, the Hawks tore off on an unanswered, 8-0 run as Marsicano hit a pair of free throws (7:07), and Mayock (5:54), Gribble (4:58), and Henderson (3:49) hit three consecutive lay-ups to go up by two, 46-44, halfway through the quarter en route to an eventual 51-51 draw at the end of the third.

Q4 - UMass' Destiney Philoxy hit a three to open the fourth, but Marsicano (8:47) and Jekot (8:21) combined to go a perfect 4-of-4 from the stripe to go back ahead, 55-54. Philoxy answered with a lay-up (7:53), but the Hawks soared away on a 13-2 run with a Gribble three (7:29), back-to-back lay-ups from Santarelli (6:53, 6:08), Marsicano (5:24), and Henderson (3:48) and a jumper from senior guard Lula Roig (3:18) that pushed SJU's lead out to 10, 68-58.

The Hawks held the Minutewomen to 3-of-8 shooting from the field and scoreless from deep (0-of-3) in the final 2:20 en route to the 76-69 victory.