Women’s Basketball Falls to St. Joe’s (Maine) in GNAC Championship

STANDISH, Maine – Saint Joseph's (Maine) surged in the second half to take down the Suffolk women's basketball team, 73-59, in the GNAC Championship Saturday afternoon at the Harold Alfond Center.   

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 49, Saint Joseph's (Maine) 73
RECORDS: Suffolk (21-7) | Saint Joseph's (Maine) (27-1)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Each team took advantage of its first pair of possessions before the score locked at 7-7 and again at 12-all. The Monks used back-to-back buckets from downtown to gain an 18-12 advantage, which forced Suffolk to take a timeout just under four minutes remaining in the first frame. 

The Rams ran out of the break with nine unanswered points, seven of which came from Jenni-Rose DiCecco, to flip the switch and make it a 21-18 Suffolk game at the 1:43 minute mark. St. Joe's attempted to make a run to end the quarter, but Alexandra Nagri struck from three-point land to keep the blue-and-gold ahead, 24-22, after the first. 

A low scoring second stanza featured SJC taking the lead on the very first play. From there, Suffolk went nearly three minutes without a hoop before Marissa Gudauskas buried the first of what would be five Rams' triples over the second set of the 10 minutes. Every time the Monks would grab an edge, Suffolk responded with a shot from downtown. With just over three minutes remaining in the half, Alexis Hackett's second trey of the day leveled the playing field at 33-all and 50 seconds later Rachel LaSaracina pushed Suffolk in front, 36-33, 50 seconds with her own long ball. St. Joe's Julia Champagne connected on a set of freebies before the final whistle of the half to trim the Rams' edge to 36-35 at intermission. 

Hackett scored the first hoop of the third frame, but it turned into the St. Joe's show from there. The Monks turned a 12-0 run into an 18-point, 60-42, cushion for the hosts heading into the final frame. 

Suffolk cut the deficit to 16 in the opening minutes of the quarter and 14 after Georgia Bourikas converted on a four-point play at the 4:32 minute mark. St. Joe's answered every hoop that the Rams put in, however, to keep a 19-point distance with under three minutes to play in regulation. 

Mya Blazejowski's triple was followed by one from DiCecco cut the margin to 13 with 1:42 on the clock, but it was too little too late as the Monks locked up the win, 73-59.   

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• DiCecco matched a game-high 24 points, shooting 50 percent (8-16) from the field and a 5-for-11 effort from three-point range. She added five rebounds, five assists and one block to her stat line.
• Hackett contributed 12 points on a 50 percent (5-10) shooting clip from the floor to go with a team-high eight boards, three handouts, one swat and one steal.
• Bourikas added seven points in her final collegiate game.
• Suffolk shot just 38.2 percent (21-55) from the field, 40.6 percent (13-32) from downtown and 50.0 percent (4-8) from the line.
• The Monks outrebounded the Rams, 39-27. 

2018 GNAC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

Quarterfinals – Feb. 20
Game 1: #1 Saint Joseph's (Maine) defeated #8 Mount Ida, 83-54
Game 2: #5 Albertus Magnus defeated #4 Regis, 51-49
Game 3: #3 Suffolk defeated #6 Johnson & Wales, 68-46
Game 4: #2 Emmanuel defeated #7 Norwich, 79-52
Semifinals – Feb. 22
Game 5: #1 Saint Joseph's (Maine) defeated #5 Albertus Magnus, 78-65
Game 6: #3 Suffolk defeated #2 Emmanuel, 73-68
Championship – Feb. 24
Game 7 - #1 Saint Joseph's (Maine) defeated #3 Suffolk, 73-59 

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Emily Benway, Saint Joseph's (Maine)
Olivia Bolden, Albertus Magnus
Georgia Bourikas, Suffolk
Julia Champagne, Saint Joseph's (Maine)
Jenni-Rose DiCecco, Suffolk
Kelsie McNamara (MVP), Saint Joseph's (Maine)
Kayla Weaver, Emmanuel 

NOTEWORTHY

• The Rams appeared in their fifth GNAC Title game.
• DiCecco put together her 20th game in double figures fourth straight and sixth outing with 20 or more points.
• Hackett notched 10 or more points in 18 games this season including the last six.
• Bourikas wrapped up her career in Suffolk blue-and-gold scattered throughout the record books and graduates as the most potent free throw shooter in a Ram uniform making 84.2 percent of her 272 attempts (229-272).
  • 3rd in Three-Point FG Made – 146
  • 4th in Three-Point FG% - 38.0 (146-384)
  • 6th in Assists – 217
  • 9th in FG Made – 367
  • 9th in Free Throws Made – 229
  • 12th in Points - 1109 

POST-GAME PIC