Loretto, Pa. – Saint Francis women's basketball (11-19) had its season come to a close in a 73-70 defeat to Sacred Heart (13-17) in the NEC Tournament quarterfinals on Monday at DeGol Arena.
Lili Benzel (Altoona, PA/Bishop Guilfoyle (Shippensburg)) led the Red Flash in scoring with a career-high 15 points, while
Karson Swogger (Bellwood, PA/Bellwood-Antis) added 14 points.
The Pioneers led wire-to-wire, but had to hold off a late Red Flash fourth quarter rally. After trailing by double-digits, Saint Francis used back-to-back three-pointers from
Jada Dapaa (Potomac, MD/Holy Child) and
Haley Thomas (Hooversville, PA/Bishop McCort) to pull within 62-58 with 4:19 to play in the game.
SFU continued to fight and trimmed the margin to 66-64 following two Swogger free throws with 36 seconds to go. Sacred Heart extended its lead to 70-64 before Benzel knocked down a three-pointer with 19 seconds left.
After two Pioneers' free throws, Swogger kept the Red Flash alive with a trifecta to cut the score to 72-70 with 12 seconds remaining. Sacred Heart made 1-of-2 free throws giving the Red Flash a chance, but Benzel's shot in the final seconds was off the mark to give the Pioneers the victory.
Sacred Heart jumped out to an early 12-5 lead mid-way through the first quarter. A
Sam Miller (Red Lion, PA/Dallastown) layup cut the lead to 17-14 with 1:41 to play in the opening period. The Pioneers closed the frame on a 7-0 run to seize a 24-14 advantage at the end of the first stanza.
Sacred Heart carried the momentum into the second quarter and had its lead grow to 34-18. Benzel then helped spark an 11-3 run with a triple and capped off the surge with another trey to pull SFU within 37-29 with two minutes to play.
Jenna Mastellone's (New York City, N.Y./Archbishop Molloy) layup at the buzzer narrowed the halftime margin to 40-33.
Benzel picked up where she left off and opened the scoring in the third period with a three-pointer. The Pioneers then put together a 12-3 spurt to take a 52-39 advantage with 4:06 left. Sacred Heart led 55-42 at the end of the third frame.
The Pioneers had the lead grow to as many as 14 in the final period. SHU led 62-50 when Swogger's layup with 6:03 remaining ignited the Red Flash rally. Saint Francis pulled within two points on three occasions, but was unable to take the lead in the final minutes.
Inside the Box Score
- Saint Francis shot 24-of-58 (41.4%) from the floor, including 10-of-25 (40.0%) from three-point range.
- SFU was 12-of-16 (75.0%) from the free throw line.
- The Red Flash won the battle on the boards with a 40-31 rebounding advantage.
- All of Benzel's scoring in her career-high performance came from behind the three-point arc as she was 5-of-12 from long range.
- Mastellone also scored in double figures with 10 points.
- Thomas recorded eight points and eight rebounds, while Dapaa had eight points and pulled down seven boards.
Notes
- Saint Francis was eliminated from the NEC Tournament in the quarterfinals for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
- Sacred Heart improves to 25-18 in the all-time series history.
- The Pioneers snapped a three-game losing skid to the Red Flash after SFU had won both previous meetings this season.
- SFU closed the season with six straight defeats, while Sacred Heart extended its winning streak to five games.
- Saint Francis returns 11 of 13 players next season after the graduation of Caitlin Carroll (Middletown, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) and Sam Sabino (Rumson, N.J./Rumson Fair Haven (New Hampshire)).
