WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 16, 2010) – For the second game in a row – and despite showing signs of rust from a 12-day layoff – freshman Alexandra Williams caught fire in the clutch to lead the Saint Francis University women's basketball team past a non-conference opponent, this time on the road against Howard.

After scoring five points in the opening half of her first career start, Williams ended up with a game-high 22 points in pacing the Red Flash past the Bison, 67-55.

“We just got it done in the end,” said Flash head coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl. “Both teams needed to get their second wind. After being off for that long your legs, your rhythm just aren't there. Obviously, we did a much better job in that last 10 minutes.”

Both teams were sluggish out of the gate, each shooting under 30 percent from the floor. Saint Francis, however, was able to make it to the intermission holding a 22-16 advantage. The Bison's 16 points represented the lowest scoring output in any half by a Flash opponent this season.

Howard's 24.1 shooting percentage in the frame was also a season-worst for a Red Flash opponent.

After trading blows early in the second half, momentum began to swing in favor of the Bison with Cheyenne Curley-Payne and Adelle Walton keying a three-minute 11-1 run that erased SFU's six point halftime lead and put Howard on top, 29-27 with 15 minutes remaining.

A Samantha Leach (Mount Sterling, Ohio/Miami Trace) jumper and back-to-back layups by Nickia Gibbs (Greenbelt, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt) stopped the bleeding and restored the Flash advantage.

“We were missing a couple of players and I just thought our kids stepped up,” said Robinson Fruchtl. “Kia, Najah Prescott (Philadelphia, Pa./Cardinal Dougherty) and Kelley Doogan (Claymont, Del./Ursuline Academy) – even though she didn't play a lot of minutes; those three kids gave us some sparks off of the bench. Especially Kia.”

As Walton continued to heat up for the Bison, Williams and Leach kept the pace for SFU before Sarah Thorn (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury East) launched a three that gave the Red Flash the lead for good.

Taking a cue from her teammates, Allison Daly (Harrisburg, Pa./Trinity), who was in the midst of a quiet day offensively, snapped out of her game-long slump to toss in all of her eight points in the final 5:10 of play to help Saint Francis take an insurmountable lead.

“It was a game of runs,” said Robinson Fruchtl. “That one of ours in the last three minutes was just too strong for Howard to come back from.”

In addition to Williams, Leach was the only other SFU player to achieve a double-digit scoring total with 16. Daly pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds.

Walton led Howard's four double-digit scorers with 17 points, thanks mostly to a 5-for-7 performance from three-point range.

The victory – Saint Francis' fourth in a row – ties the program record for consecutive non-conference wins since the program joined the division I ranks in 1985-86. The school mark of five-straight non-conference wins was set during the 1974-75 season.

With Saturday's 7 p.m. contest at no. 8 West Virginia looming on the schedule, replicating that feat could be a tall order.