July 7, 2009

PHILADELPHIA - Playing with a youthful lineup and all its games away from Hawk HIll for the first time in program history, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team persevered during the 2008-09 season and went on to capture a share of the Big 5 crown for the first time since 2000-01.

Starting the season earlier than normal, Saint Joseph's embarked on a 10-day, four-game tour of Spain. The Hawks spent August 17 through 26 traveling to Madrid, Marbella and Barcelona. Saint Joseph's head coach Cindy Griffin and seniors Jenna Loschiavo and Mary Kate McDade documented their trips with blogs and photos on SJUHawks.com.

Having bonded both on and off the court to start the semester, the Hawks opened the season at national-power Rutgers. Despite falling to the No. 3-ranked Scarlet Knights, Saint Joseph's would rebound at "home." Led by junior Brittany Ford's 19 points, the Hawks topped Lehigh 71-63 in the first of five straight home wins at Philadelphia University's Gallagher Center.

Standing at 1-1 on the season, Saint Joseph's fell at city foe Drexel before opening Big 5 play with a 66-60 win at Penn to move back to .500.

Spending the Thanksgiving Holiday at the Vanderbilt Thanksgiving Classic, Saint Joseph's got two solid offensive performances from All-Tournament Team selection Mariame Djouara, but it wasn't enough as SJU dropped the opening game in a hard-fought battle to Virginia Tech, 66-63, before holding off a pesky Davidson team, 78-68.

In what would turn out to be the game of the year both for the Hawks and Big 5 basketball, Saint Joseph's and Villanova needed three overtimes to settle this year's edition of the Holy War. Behind a combined 56 points from Djouara and Ford, the Hawks improved to 2-0 in City Series play as they topped the Wildcats in the first ever triple-overtime game in Big 5 history.

Coming off the emotionally-charged win over Villanova, the Hawks would drop three of their next four before rebounding to win both games of the round-robin set up of this year's Hawk Classic.

Following a loss at Gonzaga to open the new year, Saint Joseph's closed out the nonconferece portion of its schedule with a 72-59 win at George Mason as all 10 Hawks in uniform scored.

Picked to finish sixth in the A-10 preseason poll, Saint Joseph's entered conference play still looking to find its stride. Looking to stay perfect in Big 5 play, the Hawks took Temple to the wire, but got their first blemish both in the A-10 and Big 5 play with a 58-53 loss.

Playing nearly stride-for-stride with the conference's top teams, the Hawks went just 3-5 over their next eight games, with the five losses coming by a combined 24 points.

Saint Joseph's snapped a two-game losing streak in a big way against La Salle. Playing at the Daskalakis Center, the Hawks used a total team effort and never trailed past the opening minutes in capturing a share of the Big 5 title with a 3-1 mark.

The Hawks finished the season with a 2-3 mark, and earned the 10th seed in the A-10 Tournament with a 6-8 conference record. Facing one of the best St. Bonaventure teams in years, SJU fought valiantly against the Bonnies, tying the game midway through the 2nd half. Unfortunately for the Hawks, St. Bonaventure pulled away in the final minutes, ending SJU's season shy of its goal of an A-10 title.

While the Hawks fell short of one of their goals, they were able to return the Big 5 title to Hawk Hill, while several players enjoyed stellar individual seasons. Ford averaged a team-high 12.2 points per game and earned A-10 All-Conference Honorable Mention and All-Big 5 2nd Team Accolades, while Djouara joined her on the Big 5 Second Team. Team MVP, Mary Kate McDade, turned in her best season, averaging a career-high in points per game (5.5) and rebounds (4.1), while finishing second in the A-10 in assists with 160. Starting all 30 games, McDade finished fifth in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.35) and capped her career seventh all-time in program history with 385 assists. Classmate Jenna Loschiavo capped her SJU career as one of the top three-point shooters in program history, finishing third all-time with 214 three pointers.

Despite losing McDade and Loschiavo to graduation, SJU's future looks bright as the Hawks return their two top scorers and a deep squad of talented veterans.