Hawk Classic: Rider Edges Saint Joe’s in First-Ever Over Hawks to Advance to Title Game Facing Boston College

Guru’s note: decided to break out the event attended from the rest of the report

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – There’s a first and second time for everything and happily for the Rider women and unhappily for their host Saint Joseph’s counterparts both historical moments occurred here Saturday afternoon in the opening semifinal round of the annual Hawk Classic at Hagan Arena.

In the second half the Broncs finished erasing a 10-point deficit and held on for a narrow 56-54 win to advance to Sunday’s title game at noon against Boston College, which beat Loyola of Maryland 73-47 in the second game.

Saint Joseph’s (1-4) will play the Greyhounds (0-5) for third place at 2 p.m. following the championship presentation. The Hawks slotted themselves for that time slot Sunday no matter Saturday’s outcome.

It’s the first-ever win for Rider (2-3) against the Hawks in the now six-game series, though the last time the two sides met was Jan. 21, 1986, just over three decades ago.

But it’s also just the second time Saint Joseph’s has lost in its own semifinals. The previous was at the 22nd anniversary of the Hawk Classic when Quinnipiac on the way to its own historic season edged the Hawks 69-67 on Dec. 28, 2014.

Rider now has a two-game win streak after a historic triumph a week ago at home in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J., when Stella Johnson had the program’s first triple double.

“When I was here, the Hawk Classic was always a big deal, something you looked forward to,” said Rider head coach Lynn Milligan, who was an assistant to Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin, who has a previous loss to the Broncs when she coached Loyola of Maryland.

“We’re really fortunate to come in here and grind one out. It’s a big win for our program. We needed that,” Milligan said of getting the second straight win. “Sometimes when you lose early you have to take steps and remind everybody this is a process.

“Our kids buy into what we do. We work hard every day. We started to take steps a week ago and today  was a testament to that and we ground this one out.” 

It’s the second time this month Saint Joseph’s has been involved in a common great/dubious moment, the previous was the loss at Drexel when the Dragons blanked the Hawks 16-0 in the opening period, marking the first shutout quarter tossed by the home team and first-ever scoreless period suffered by the visitors.

This is the third season of NCAA competition using four 10-minute quarters instead of two 20-minute halves.

“It came down to who’s making plays and who handled the ball best down the stretch,” Griffin said. “We had some key turnovers under three minutes that you wish you could get back. Nonetheless, we still had the ball down two with 14 seconds left.

“I don’t think we got a great look, but we got a look (from Katie Jekot). And then they missed a couple of free throws and we had a little more of a chance than we deserved at that point but we had a chance.”

After Jekot’s missed shot, the Broncs’ Amari Johnson, who had a game high of 17 points and also grabbed seven rebounds, collected the rebound to aid Rider in the closing seconds.

“We said in the huddle we have to get one more stop and we’re going to have to get a rebound. And Amari went way up and got that one. And then down here we forced a tie-up and everyone in the huddle knew it was our possession. We did a really good job.”

 With both squads coming off their first wins of the season following 0-3 starts, Rider, which had trailed by 10 points early in the second period, went back in front early in the third to make it a narrowly fought contest the rest of the way.

Amari Johnson scored in the paint with 5 minutes, 26 seconds left in regulation, to give Rider a 48-47 lead that would twice expand to four points, the second of which on Stella Johnson’s shot with 48 seconds left.

There were 11 lead changes and four ties in the game.

Alyssa Monaghan made two foul shots for the Hawks to get the deficit down to two. Amari Johnson made a bad pass but then got the rebound on Jekot’s missed shot with four seconds left. She was fouled but missed both free throws, though Daiji Moses got the rebound, enabling the Broncs to retain possession.

Graduate transfer Mia Farmer from George Washington went to the line with one second left and also missed both chances but time ran out.

Rider got 16 points on opposition turnovers while the Hawks mined just three off Broncs miscues.

Stella Johnson had 14 points, four assists, and three steals while Lea Favre had 10 points and eight rebounds.

The Hawks’ Jekot had 10 points and six rebounds while Monaghan had a team high 13 points and dealt eight assists.

“We’re still a work in progress, obviously, with some people in new roles,” Griffin said. “We just have to continue to get better. We have another game tomorrow, so we have to shake this one off and have to be ready.”

Saint Joseph’s is in the middle of a long stand, having beaten Niagara Tuesday, playing the tournament this weekend, hosting an improved Columbia team Thursday and then hosting Villanova Sunday, followed by visits from Auburn (Dec. 6) and Towson (Dec. 10) before a long break.

“We couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to have some home games and just keep getting better. We need to tighten some things on offense and certainly defense,” Griffin noted. “We’re not going to score a whole lot of points, we know that, we have to hold people under their averages which we did a good job today and get better at sub five-minute games.”

There was some irony in how this game went for Saint Joseph’s compared to the way the other semifinal loss went against the Bobcats, who missed two foul shots in the final seconds.

But former star Natasha Cloud, now a WNBA standout with the Washington Mystics, who had had a superb contest, went the other way and slipped and fell, creating a turnover to preserve the win for the visitors.

In Saturday’s second game, Boston College (5-0), under new coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, who previously coached Albany, Emma Guy had 15 points and nine rebounds, Georgia Pineau scored 12 and dealt six assists, while Marnelle Gerrard and Makayla Dickens each scored 10 points.

The Greyhounds’ Alexis Gray scored 11 and Bri Betz-White scored 10 in the program’s first ever meeting with the Eagles.

There are some local ties with the Hawks program and B.C. and Loyola. Former star Kerri Shields, who does color for Eagles games, is a sister of former Hawks star Erin and daughter of former Saint Joseph’s star Renie Shields, who is now the athletic department’s senior women’s administrator who does color for her alma mater’s broadcasts.

Loyola coach Joe Logan is a former Hawks assistant under Griffin. Assistant Sarah 

Jones played at Villanova and Jenna Loschiavo played for the Hawks, while Saint Joseph’s former star, now operations director Katie Kuester, had her first assistant coaching job under Logan.

Greyhounds assistant Shelley Sheetz is a former Colorado star and past Boston College pick.

Having been a local star at Boulder, she was a first-round pick for the Colorado Xplosion in the former American Basketball League. However in the league’s first season she found herself bumped in the starting lineup by Debbie Black, an all-timer here on Hawk Hill.

Saint Joseph’s and Loyola last played in 1999.