Spring Break
Another loss for women's hoops after defeat by St. Joe's Hawks
Matt Swiss
Issue date: 2/3/09 Section: Sports
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"All the credit goes to St. Joe's," head coach Tom Garrick said. "They came in here today 1-4 knowing that they needed to win, they played hard and their kids did the job. They just kept coming."
After winning the opening tip, the Hawks jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a free throw from junior forward Brittany Ford. The Rams answered quickly with an 8-2 run, highlighted by four points from senior forward Sierra Cooper and two points a piece from senior guard Crystal Bellinger and sophomore guard Megan Shoniker. Cooper, Bellinger and Shoniker all scored in double figures, finishing with 16, 17 and 17 points respectively.
"[Balance] is the most important thing," Garrick said, "but even with those players in double figures, we needed to have more points. We're trying to get people to score but scoring has been tough for us."
A turn-around hook shot from Ford sparked a dominating 11-0 run by St. Joe's, as the Hawks jumped out to 14-8 run with just over 10 minutes remaining. Ford finished with a game-high 21 points while grabbing 10 boards.
"Obviously we didn't stop her," Garrick said. "I thought we had a game plan set forward to slow her down a little bit. We were supposed to be doubling her on the block but we didn't really do a good job of getting her far enough away from the basket that the double could get there."
Garrick repeatedly noted the absence of senior forward Tanja Licina who missed Saturday's game after injuring herself in the team's previous game at La Salle University.
"Having Tanja out hurts but we can't cry over spilt milk," he said. "We have players and they'll have to step up and pick up for their injured teammates. The kids that we had out there could have done a better job."
Things did not get much better for the Rams as they were outscored 17-9 during the final 10 minutes of play, entering the break trailing 31-17.
"I think we just fell into a little bit of an offensive lapse," Garrick said. "They're a gritty team who never stops and we knew that coming in. We knew that once we started struggling on offense, it was going to be an uphill battle."
