SJU Athletics Photos

PHILADELPHIA (1/21/01) ­ The St. Joseph's women's basketball team (10-8, 4-3 A-10) put forth a yeoman effort on "Take A Kid to a Game Day," but ran out of gas at the finish as nationally-ranked #23/22 Xavier (14-2, 5-1 A-10) defeated the Hawks 73-57 at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. The contest marked the head coaching debut of Reggi Grennan on the sidelines for the Crimson and Gray. Grennan is serving as interim head coach for the Hawks, replacing Stephanie Gaitley who is taking a paid leave of absence from the University for the remainder of the 2000-01 season. SJU was keyed by the strong play of its freshmen class, including career-high performances from freshmen Amra Mehmedic (15 points) and Stephanie Graff (10 points). Leading by three at the break, SJU suffered a setback early in the second half when Susan Moran was whistled for her fourth personal foul less than two minutes into the period. Over the next ten minutes the contest remained close with the Hawks holding a slim 50-48 lead at the 8:22 mark of the half. Down the stretch, however, the Musketeers proved to be too strong. XU finished the game with a 27-7 run that provided the final margin of victory. Four of Xavier's five starters finished in double figures led by Jennifer Phillips 22 points. Reeta Piipari (17 pts.), Nicole Levandusky (15 pts.) and Taru Tuukkanen (13 pts.) also finished in double digits. Xavier led by as many as five points in the first half, but the Hawks hung tough knotting the game on six occasions before claiming the lead right before intermission. Consecutive hoops by Graff and a three-pointer by Mehmedic with 44 seconds to play allowed SJU to take a 31-28 lead into the locker room. The contest marked the first time all season that SJU was not led in scoring by either Moran or Angela Zampella. Zampella finished the game with 5 assists, giving her 517 for her career, one shy of the SJU career record held by Debbie Black. In addition to Mehmedic and Graff, Elizabeth "Hootie" Mohan finished with 6 points and a career high 6 rebounds. After a brief stay at home, the Hawk women will hit the road next weekend for a pair of conference match-ups. On Friday, SJU will pay a visit to the Tom Gola Arena in North Philadelphia for an Atlantic 10 and Philadelphia Big Five contest with La Salle. On Sunday, SJU will square-off against Duquesne at the Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh.