SJU Athletics Photos

PHILADELPHIA (2/24/01) ­ Erupting for its largest victory of the season, St. Joseph's (15-12, 9-7) dismantled Fordham (5-22, 2-14) on Senior Day at the Fieldhouse, 89-55. Susan Moran led all scorers and recorded her fourth double-double in the last five games, finishing with 26 points and 10 boards. She was backed by a career-high 20-point outburst by freshman Amra Mehmedic. The win secured the Hawks a fifth place finish in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings and a first round bye in the A-10 Tournament next weekend at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University. Taking part in their final home game, Angela Zampella and manager Tim Regenauer, the Hawk mascot, were saluted in pregame ceremonies. The Crimson and Gray seized control of the game from the opening tap and never looked back. Mehmedic, breaking out of a five-game scoring slum, had a hand in all of SJU's scoring early, as the team sped out to a 10-0 lead. She scored the squad's first eight points on a pair of three-pointers and an off-balance jumper, then dished off to Irina Krasnoshiok, scored and forced the Rams to take a timeout. The timeout did nothing to stall the Hawks, who shot a season best 56% from the field. Returning to the floor, SJU pushed its lead out to 18-3. Fordham briefly trimmed the advantage, but the Hawks then slowly began to pull away, leading by as many as 22-points before intermission. The Hawks led at the break 45-28. In the second half, SJU was never threatened and all eyes turned to Zampella, who entered the game just 13 points shy of 1,500 for her career. She finished the contest with exactly 13 points, hitting the milestone on a free throw with 4:06 remaining before exiting the game to a rousing round of applause. She is just the sixth player in SJU history to reach the milestone. Moran reached the mark earlier this season. The large victory margin allowed Hawk head coach Reggi Grennan to clear the bench and allocate extended minutes to several Hawks who have seen limited action this season. All eleven Hawks that played in the game scored, including freshman walk-on Esther Hoffer, who netted her first collegiate points. The 34-point margin of victory was the biggest by SJU since a 37-point rout of Rhode Island on February 3, 2000. The 89 points, meanwhile were the most by SJU since a 90-point performance against Air Force in the semifinals of the 1999 Hawk Classic. All eleven Hawks that played finished in the scoring column. The last time that SJU had more than 11 players in the scoring column came on December 6, 1999, when all 12 Hawks that played scored in a 77-37 win over Temple. The A-10 Tournament kicks off at the Liacouras Center on Friday, March 2. SJU, which earned a first round bye will play the #4 seed Dayton in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The Hawks defeated the Flyers in last year's quarterfinals, 62-60, but dropped a 72-63 decision to UD at the Fieldhouse in January. A win would likely pit the Crimson and Gray against top-seeded and nationally-ranked Xavier in the semifinals.