Women’s basketball commemorates successful campaign

It’s taken a while for us to get these pictures onto the site, but here’s all the action from the 34th annual women’s basketball banquet.

Brittany Ford is awarded a commemorative basketball by Coach Cindy Griffin for her 1,000th point.

The team poses for a picture with their letterman gifts.

Assistant coach Stephanie McCaffery poses with senior guard Amy Gillespie and her Loyalty and Leadership Award. Other award recipeints included Michelle Baker for the Roosevelt Hunter Community Service Award, Katie Kuester for the Patricia Ryan Unsung Hero Award, and Shelby Smith for the Reverend Emory Ross Academic Excellence Award.

An emotional Djouara accepts the Chris DiJulia Inspirational Award from assistant Coach Sue Moran and Chris DiJulia, himself.

Moran gives Ashley Logue her award as Most Improved Player. The center also picked up the Big 5’s Most Improved Player honor.

Chris Day presents Brittany Ford with the award for Best Offensive Player.

Gillespie also takes home Best Defensive Player honors, much to her surprise.

Logue takes home the big prize of the night as the team’s Most Valluable Player, awarded by head coach Cindy Griffin.

Mariame Djouara is recognized for her 1,000 career points in her college career, both at St. Joe’s and South Plains Junior College.

Director of Athletics Don DiJulia shares his comments on the team.

Jack Jumper of Athletic Communications was the emcee for the night.

St. Joe’s vs. Duquesne LIVE Game Blog

3:53: Ford misses the free throw, but lays down a nasty block on the other end. The seniors get called off the court to cheers as the clock runs down, winning 69-56. The victory gives the Hawks the fifth seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

3:51: Pollino misses the 3, and after getting the rebound Logue is fouled by Pryor, shooting two. She misses the first, and makes the second, and on the other end Abel misses the shot to give the Hawks the ball. Ford gets the rebound and draws the foul, Pollino’s fifth of the game.

3:47: Ford gets called on a questionable offensive foul , but intercepts the pass on the other end. Djouara miss the layup to give the Dukes the ball. Pollino gets the layup to cut the lead to four. Shelby Smith then gets the layup to bring it back to six. Gensler misses the 3, and on the Hawk possession, the Hawks waste some clock and cap the drive with two points from Gillespie. the Hawks bring the lead back up to 8 with 1:06 left in the game.

3:45: Smith hits a quick layup, but Pryor counters on the other end. Coach Griffin calls a timeout to figure things out. Hawks up 62-56 with 3:10 left.

3:43:  3:46 left in the game, Hawks up 60-54 at an official timeout.

Hawk women drop thriller to Temple, 58-56

The Saint Joseph’s women’s basketball team faced off against Atlantic 10 rival Temple tonight at the Hagan Arena. Despite their best efforts at a late comeback, however, the Hawks found that they once again could not beat Temple, losing on a last-second shot by a score of 58-56.

In the first half, Temple (16-6, 5-2 A-10) opened up an early lead. What didn’t help the Hawks (11-11, 4-3 A-10) out was that they could not seem to handle the basketball tonight, missing passes and experiencing problems simply dribbling the ball. What also hurt the Hawks was that reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week Brittany Ford, ’10, tweaked something in her leg and was sidelined for most of the first half. When combined with the fact that the Hawks were out-rebounded 19-12, 8-1 in offensive rebounds, the Hawks found themselves going into halftime trailing 32-25.

Liveblog: St. Joe’s Women’s Basketball vs. GW

3:57: With final box score in hand, it’s clear to see who today’s star was. Brittany Ford absolutely dominated the second half, finishing with 23 points overall, going 10-13 from the floor and 3-3 from the line. Both Logue and Djouara had better games than against La Salle, and Ashley Prim even began to heat up in the second half. With momentum in their favor, the Hawks will now face Temple on Tuesday night to try and extend their winning streak to 3. On a side note, this was head coach Cindy Griffin’s 200th win as head coach of the Hawks.  From the Hagan Arena on a snowy, windy afternoon, this is Tom Hagan signing off with the Hawks beating George Washington by 63-47.

3:51: And that’ll do it for the Hawks. St. Joe’s gets a healthy 16 point win over GW, 63-47. Be back with a wrapup in a little bit.

3:49: Prim forces a turnover with Baker now in the game. Wilson picks up the rebound on a Prim miss, but Gillespie picks up the Allums miss. Ford again adds to her point total today, and the Hawks are now up 63-47.

3:47: Prim again hits two free-throws on a foul, and on the other end Logue draws her third foul of the game. Shelton hits both FTs to cut the lead to 14.

3:45: Prim knocks down both free throws to give St. Joe’s a 57-42 lead. Myers knocks down a three to lower the lead to 12. Ford continues her dominant pace with another layup and it looks as little can stop the Hawks from winning today. Now, I’m no coroner, but I think it’s almost time to pronounce this game over.

Ford, Prim spur Hawks to victory at La Salle

The St. Joe’s women’s basketball team traveled to La Salle last night where they looked to get back to .500 against a struggling Explorer team. After a second half comeback and an outstanding performance by Brittany Ford, ’10, the Hawks (10-10, 3-2 A-10) managed to leave La Salle with the victory by a score of 45-39.

In the first half of play, the Hawks could not find any semblance of an offensive rhythm. After 20 minutes, the Hawks had scored only 11 points, seven of which were scored by Ford. What saved the Hawks from being left with an insurmountable deficit was that the Explorers (5-16, 0-6 A-10)weren’t able to find rhythm themselves, with the exception of a late 11-1 run to end the half that gave La Salle a 19-11 lead.

Down eight points to the Atlantic 10 basement dweller, the Hawks would need a serious turnaround to get the victory. With a combination of Ford and key scores by Mariame Djouara, ’10, the Hawks quickly gained the lead in the second period. With less than nine minutes left in the game, the Hawks pulled a complete 180, leading the Explorers by 10. In the final minutes of the game, the Hawks were able to prevent another Explorer run and win by a final score of 45-39. Ford finished with a team-high 15 points and two blocks while Ashley Prim, ’13, finished with 8 points and seven rebounds. Up next for the Hawks will be an afternoon matchup against George Washington at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Hagan Arena.

-Tom Hagan ’11

Resilient Hawks deliver Dayton first A-10 loss

When the roller coaster ride finally ended, it was Mariame Djouara and her team who walked away with the win.

The Hawks squandered a 15-point lead and went down by as many as four late in the second before surging late to score a 68-62 upset of Dayton. Djouara led the way with a game-high 13 points and added eight rebounds to ice secure the win for St. Joe’s.

“Especially because  we know the next one is going to be on the road, and after losing a tough one to Temple, we knew this was the one we really, really needed to get,” said St. Joe’s head coach Cindy Griffin. “I though we shot the ball real  well, obviously in the first half. Hopefully this is a stepping stone for us because it gave us a lot of confidence.”

The Hawks (9-9, 2-1 A-10) jumped on the Flyers early behind lights-out shooting from behind the arc, hitting seven threes in the first half as part of their second highest first-half total this year. They stretched the advantage to as high as 15, and entered the halftime break up 13, a margin that was only that close thanks to three late turnovers by St. Joe’s.

SJU vs. VILLANOVA Live Doubleheader: UPDATED

1:03- Well, we hope you’ve enjoyed our live look at the St. Joe’s-Villanova historic doubleheader day. It’s taken seven and a half hours, two train rides, a cab fare, four press passes, a bunch of running, lots of bad jokes, almost 6,000 words, two St. Joe’s losses, and a chunk of two writers’ sanity. That’s all we’ve got for tonight.

Thanks for reading, and good night.

12:15- Before we leave the Palestra, something has to be said about the effort of the Saint Joseph’s men’s team tonight. There was a clear gulf in talent between the two squads that proved irreconcilable, but the team that was out there tonight certainly wasn’t lacking for effort. It’s hard to believe that team that took the number three team in the nation to task for portions of the game tonight is the same team that couldn’t get past DePaul, Cornell, or Rider. If they can bring the same effort with them to Minnesota, they can fly back halfway across the country with a quality win in the bags. It may be too much to ask for this to be a turning point of the season, though rivalry games as hard-fought as this one often can be, but the desire of this team, at least tonight, isn’t something to be questioned.

12:05- A little reaction from both coaches:

Phil Martelli:

“The goal here was to be better than we were yesterday. We had 2 good days of practice, probably the best two consecutive days all year. We didn’t lose four in a row in one day; we got there collectively and daily. This was about this day and bout playing better basketball, and I think we were able to accomplish this.

“The worse compliment you can be paid, when they’re walking down that line shaking hands, is to say you played hard, because that’s bulls—t. It means you weren’t good enough. You play to win, and we didn’t win, so we came up short.

“I was pleased with out response. Against Purdue we crumbled. When they punched us in the chest in the second half, we absolutely cracked. Against Cornell, we cracked. It never really got uncomfortable for them, but we didn’t crack.

“In some ways, it was like a bout. They took a swing, we took a swing, then they took a swing. Were walking out of here scoring 89 points, and I’m saying we were working up hill the entire second half. We came here to win, and we played for 40 minutes.

“My fear was that if we had stopped, what would have happened is that this is a tremendous defensive team. If we had stopped and played possession basketball, they would have pushed up on us and made it physically difficult to make the next pass and the next pass. They’re remarkably balanced. They have a way about them offensively that is very fluid, and a way about them defensively that is very tough.

“I play to win basketball games, and this stinks. Tonight and for basically the last month. But for these kids, I want memories they can take with them. Not all losses are losing experiences, and not all wins are winning experiences; and this wasn’t a losing experience.”

Jay Wright:

“I don’t have anything else to say about these games. You can never predict what is going to happen and just have to tough it out. You never now what’s going to happen. St Joe’s has such passionate fans.

“Their team played great, and I’m proud of our guys. It’s a tough gritty Big 5 win.

“That’s the type of ft shooing team I want them to be; that’s what I mean by gutty.

[On Martelli’s assertion that they were never uncomfortable] “Yeah, yeah. The whole game. I don’t know if they [the players] were. They might not have because they might not know the history, but I’ve seen the history. We knew coming in, with all the young guards who are going to be great one day, one of them is going to go off and I don’t know which one. That’s what I was afraid of. Was it going to be two of them?

[On Taylor King] “Nothing is going on in that mind when he shoots the ball. He just shoots it anytime anywhere. That is the beauty of him.”

11:55- 22 points for Scottie Reynolds and 20 off the bench from Taylor King, including four threes in the second half, led the Cats over the Hawks tonight. Pena chipped in 15, along with 13 from Fisher, nine off the bench from Wyans, and eight from Cheek. The story down the stretch for Nova was from the free-throw line, as they finished 35 of 40, including a streak of 28 straight in the second half. The shot 46.8 percent from the field (46.6 percent) and eight of 19 from three. They held the edge on the boards, led by nine from King.

The Hawks were led by 22 points from Hilliard in a stellar effort (5-5 from the field, 12-13 from the line) along with a team high seven boards. Govens had 19 points on 7-13, 3-7. Jones and Crosgile had 16 and 12, respectively, but combined for six turnovers. Williamson added 13 points and seven assists.

The Hawks got dominated on the boards to the tune of 42-31, and each team had 16 turnovers. St. Joe’s shot 25-58 (43.1 percent) from the field and 10-26 (38.5 percent) from three. They missed nine free throws though, led by a six of 10 performance by Williamson, which could have kept the game closer down the stretch.

11:32- While we wait for Martelli and Wright to enter the press room, let’s catch you up on the women’s stats which I’m sure you’re dying to here. The final margin was 56-42, with the Wildcats outscoring the Hawks 32-30 in the second 20 minutes. Lauren Sweeney and Heather Scanlon led the way off the bench with 15 and 10, respectively. The Wildcats’ bench almost beat the Hawks on their own with 38 points.

The Hawks got 10 points each from Gillespie, Ford, and Djouara. They shot just 15-51 from the field (29.1 percent) and finished with 16 turnovers to just three assists.

11:25- Reynolds again sinks both, and a missed three by Govens is fumbled out of bounds by Nova. Crosgile returns the favor on the ensuing possession, and the Cheek dribbles out the clock in a 97-89 win by the Wildcats. Final stats and comments to come.