Women's basketball | Hawks look to finish regular season with two final wins

Coming off of one of the most thrilling wins of the season, the Saint Joseph’s women’s basketball team will look to finish the regular season in a winning fashion when they take on Massachusetts this Thursday night in Amherst, and then return to the Hagan Arena Sunday to wrap up the season against Duquesne.

Last Sunday, the Hawks (15-12, 8-4 A-10) played a rough game against Richmond that they were able to pull out with a last-second shot by Brittany Ford, ’10, winning the game by a score of 67-66.

In the first half, neither team could build up a lead. The Spiders (16-10, 5-6 A-10)  were able to take a six-point lead momentarily, but a 9-0 run by the Hawks, capped off by a layup from Ashley Logue, ’10, allowed the Hawks to make a quick comeback of their own to keep the game close. From that point on in the first half, no team was able to mount another run, leaving St. Joe’s ahead 33-31 at the end of the period.

In the second half, Richmond started out by pulling ahead of the Hawks. By the time seven minutes had passed in the half, the Hawks found themselves down nine points. Down but not out, St. Joe’s steadily chipped away thanks to the efforts of their group of seniors: Ford, Logue, Amy Gillespie, ’10, and Marieme Djouara, ’10. 

With 3:47 left, the Hawks found themselves down by one, a lead Richmond was able to hold onto for almost all of the remaining time. With three seconds left, a recently subbed-in Ford hit a jumper for the Hawks, snatching victory from the Spiders by a score of 67-66. Highlighting the victory for the Hawks was 14 points and seven rebounds from Ford along with 13 points and 10 rebounds from Djouara.

With the win, the Hawks entered a three-way tie for fourth place in the Atlantic 10. With two games remaining, two more wins and a possible conference record of 10-4 would give the Hawks an excellent chance at a high seed in the Conference tournament in early March.

The first of two remaining games for St. Joe’s this season is against Massachusetts. The Minutewomen (10-17, 4-8 A-10) come into this game losing three of their last four, barely escaping with a win against conference basement-dweller La Salle. Leading the way for UMass this season are Kristina Danella and Jasmine Watson, who have averaged 12.5 and 10 points per game, respectively. Backing them up are another two solid players, Nicole Jones and Diatiema Hill. Jones averages 8.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, while Hill leads the team in steals with 40 and assists with 106. Hill shares the lead in rebounds per game with Danella and Watson, who all average 5.7.

While on paper this looks to be a pretty easy victory for the Hawks, the Minutewomen will be looking to improve their seeding within the conference tournament and surely will not go down without a fight. If the Hawks can find a way to hold Danella and Watson at bay, they should be able to leave Amherst with a win on Thursday.

In the final game of the year, the Hawks will take on the Duquesne Dukes at Hagan Arena. Duquesne (18-9, 8-4 A-10) shares the tie of fourth place with St. Joe’s and Charlotte, making this game even more meaningful for both teams. Riding a three-game losing streak, the Dukes are looking to recapture what helped them win eight of their last nine games before their skid.

Duquesne is led by three women on offense: Samantha Pollino, Keri Pryor, and Alex Gensler, who average 12, 11.8, and 11.2 points per game respectively. This could be trouble for the Hawks, who last faced a triple scoring threat in Xavier in a game that proved troublesome against the best team in the conference.

If head coach Cindy Griffin can come up with the right game plan, however, and the Hawks can execute that plan on senior day, then they should be able to finish the regular season with a victory and hope for success in the A-10 conference tournament in Maryland.