March 5, 2005

Box Score

WASHINGTON, DC - With its season on the line, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team turned in its grittiest performance of the season. Unfortunately for the Hawks, #16 Temple had too much fire-power, downing Saint Joseph's 61-51 in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Tournament Saturday afternoon at the Charles E. Smith Center.

Trailing by 13 at the half, the Hawks came out sluggish in the second stanza as Temple outscored Saint Joseph's 19-5 over the opening nine minutes to take a 48-21 lead on a jump shot by Ari Moore.

From there, Saint Joseph's turned arguably its best 11 minutes of the season.

The Hawks cut the deficit to 20, 48-28, using a 7-0 run from 9:09 to 8:07. Freshman guard Timisha Gomez accounted for four SJU's points. Sophomore Ayahna Cornish capped the run after stealing an in-bounds pass and putting in an easy layup.

Temple jumped back to a 24 point lead, with a free throw by Nicole Pittman at 6:50, but the Hawks would rattle off 12 of the next 14 points to come within 11, 54-43 on a Cornish three pointer at 2:39.

Following a pair of Temple free throws, Saint Joseph's converted four from the charity stripe to cut the deficit to single digits, 56-47, with one minute remaining.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, time wasn't on their side, as the Owls hit five late free throws to close the game.

"I am very proud of our kids today," said Saint Joseph's Head coach Cindy Griffin. "We could have lost by 30 today, but they continued to fight."

In the first half, the Hawks jumped out early, making four of their first eight shots to take an 8-4 lead at 14:35.

The top-seeded Owls, trailing for its first time in three meetings versus Saint Joseph's, turned it up defensively from there. Temple held the Hawks without a field goal over the next 9:36.

At the other end, the Temple started to click, going on a 17-4 run to take a 21-12 lead on a layup by Khadija Bowens at 5:33.

Temple would take a 29-16 lead into the half after holding Saint Joseph's to 2-of-16 from the field over the final 14 minutes of play.

"We have struggled scoring all year," Griffin said. "Temple did a good job on defense and denied us the ball."

For the game, the Hawks shot 18-of-60 (.300) and 3-of-12 (.250) from behind the arc. At the other end, Temple went 25-53 (.472) and 1-5 (.200) from three-point range. The Owls won the battle of the boards 43-40, but the Hawks caused 15 turnovers, while giving up only 11.

Individually, Cornish posted her first career double-double, scoring a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. Junior forward Faith Schutte added nine points and eight rebounds, while Gomez chipped in with nine off the bench. Redshirt freshman Erica Pollock and junior Maura McBryan scored six apiece and sophomore Whitney Ffrench added a game-high four assists and two points.

Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Candice Dupree paced Temple with 12 points, as the Owls got balanced scoring with 11 other players adding at least a point.

With the loss, Saint Joseph's completes its season with a 7-23 record, while Temple moves to the A-10 Tournament semifinals with record of 25-3.

Despite the season being over, the Hawks are excited and ready for next year as they return all 12 players from this year's roster.

"Our two games against La Salle yesterday and Temple was a good way to end our season," Griffin said. "This will carry us over to next season."

"I'm excited having all our girls back," Schutte said. "This is going to give us motivation for next year. Next year, watch out for the Hawks."