FAIRFIELD, CONN- Sacred Heart shot 70 percent in the first quarter and held off a Saint Francis comeback to eliminate the Red Flash from the NEC Tournament 92-71 on Wednesday night.

The Pioneers led 30-12 at the end of the first quarter, prompting a Red Flash comeback, cutting the SHU lead to six, 46-40, at the half.  

"It would have been easy to give up after getting down 20," Head Coach Joe Haigh said. "But I love how this team fights, we turned up the intensity and we started to get some shots to fall."

The Flash began chipping away in the second quarter, a Maya Wynn (Reisterstown, Md./McDonogh) three cut the lead to 15 at 42-27. That sparked a 16-4 run to close the half. Aisha Brock (Jacksonville, Fla./Potter's House Christian Academy) struck for five points and Jess Kovatch willed her way to a pair of buckets late to cut the lead to six. For Brock, she finished with 11 points, giving her 1,003 for her career as she became the 24^th member of the 1000 point club at SFU.

Sacred Heart took back the momentum early in the second half, scoring six quick points to re-open their double-digit lead. Again the Flash responded, cutting the lead to five on a Kovatch three and a Courtney Zezza (Plum, Pa./Plum) jumper to make it 53-48, but that is as close as they would get.

"I give Sacred Heart all the credit, that is a really good team playing at a championship level," Haigh said. "I thought we executed our game plan to take Kimmel out of the game (she finished with 10), but they hit some big shots and just executed their offense really well tonight."

SHU responded with a 13-1 run over the next three minutes to bring the lead back to 17 at 66-49. They would take a 68-53 lead into the fourth quarter. The Flash could never get closer as Sacred Heart burned clock and the Flash's threes would not fall down. Sacred Heart would lead by as many as 25 in the fourth en route to the title game.
Seniors Aisha Brock (Jacksonville, Fla./Potter's House Christian Academy) (who finished with 11) and Brielle Ward (Baltimore, Md./Western (Hampton U)), who had eight points and seven boards played nearly the entire fourth quarter, but that wasn't by design.

"I wanted to take them (Brock and Ward) out with a few minutes left to give them the ovation they deserved," Haigh said. "But Bri (Ward) didn't want to leave the court so Cyd (Smith) gave up her spot, and Samiah (Bethel) did the same for Aisha…that's the type of impact that the seniors had on our team."

Sacred Heart advances to the title game to take on Robert Morris on Sunday.

The Flash finish the season at 14-17 overall and made the 17^th semi-final appearance in school history.

"We had a great season," Coach Haigh said. "For as young as we were and for the seniors to lead like they did, we had a great year with a lot of great memories."