Duquesne 90, Jackson State 72
The Duquesne women's basketball team advances to the finals of the Ball State Federal Credit Union Thanksgiving Classic after a 90-72 victory over Jackson State (1-5) on Saturday afternoon at Ball State's Worthen Arena. With the win, the Dukes (2-3) will play for the championship on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
April Robinson led all scorers, registering a career-high for the second straight game with 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting - including tying a career-best with four 3-pointers. Jose-Ann Johnson and Deva'Nyar Workman each scored 13 points. Olivia Bresnahan tied her career-high with seven assists. Robinson tied her career-best with a game-high six steals. Johnson had a game-high nine rebounds.
JSU was led by Ayanna Hardy-Fuller who scored 16 points. Tiara Pollnitz, Alisa Ross and Derica Wiggins each scored 10 points.
The Dukes came out hot, making six of their first seven shots, including 3-pointers from Bresnahan and Workman, building a 16-10 lead heading into the under 16-media timeout. The solid shooting continued, as a Johnson jumper gave the Dukes a 10-point lead at 25-15 with 13:19 remaining in the half. Duquesne doubled-up Jackson State on Emilie Gronas' 1-and-1 at the midway point of the half. Gronas gave the Dukes its largest lead of the half at 22 points when her jumper made the score 37-15. Duquesne hit the 40-point mark on a Amadea Szamosi layup with 6:36 left and the 50-point mark on a Belma Nurkiclayup with 1:31 remaining. JSU's Ross closed out the 1st half scoring with a 3-pointer that made the score 50-36.
The Dukes finished the half shooting 53.3 percent, making 16-of-30 shots, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
Robinson's 3-pointer followed by a Brianna Thomas layup capped a 21-8 run to open the 2nd half and give Duquesne its largest lead of the game at 27 points, 71-44. The Dukes would maintain a 20-point lead until Hardy-Fuller's layup made the score 74-55. The closest the Lady Tigers would get to tying the contest was 16 points with 1:04 to play.
Saint Joseph’s 64, St. Francis Brooklyn 42
Outscoring St. Francis Brooklyn 31-14 in the second half, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team downed the Terriers, 64-42, Saturday in the semifinals of the Seton Hall Thanksgiving Tournament. The Hawks will now face the host Pirates at 2:30 p.m. Sunday for the tournament title.
With the victory, Saint Joseph's head coach Cindy Griffin tied the all-time record for wins at Hawk Hill, 248, that was set by Women's Basketball Hall of Famer Jim Foster (1978-91).
Up by just five at the half, the Hawks (2-3) came out of halftime with strong performances at both ends. Scoring in three of its first four possessions, Saint Joseph's quickly pushed its lead to 11, 39-28, on layup by Sarah Fairbanks at 17:59.
The Hawks had their lead trimmed to nine twice from there, but that was as close as the Terriers would get as the SJU's defense held them to just 5-of-25 from the floor for the stanza.
After a slow start to the game, Saint Joseph's pulled ahead by eight over St. Francis Brooklyn as a three-pointer by Natasha Cloud gave her team a 29-21 lead with 4:13 to go in the half.
The Terriers bounced back with a 7-0 run to cut SJU's lead to one, but a layup by Fairbanks and a jumper by Cloud gave the Hawks a 33-28 lead going into halftime.
For the game, Saint Joseph's shot 45.8 percent from the field (27-of-59) and hit 4-of-9 from three-point range and 6-of-8 from the foul line. Using their size to their advantage, the Hawks outrebounded the Terriers 46-25 and outscored them 38-18 in the paint.
Individually, Cloud had a game-high 16 points and seven assists and added eight rebounds. Junior Ciara Andrews added 11 points and Fairbanks had 10 points and four blocked shots. Rookie Adashia Franklyn had a game-high 11 rebounds and added seven points and four blocked shots.
At the other end, St. Francis Brooklyn shot just 28.8 percent from the field (15-of-52), 18.2 percent from behind the arc (4-of-22) and 8-of-10 from the foul line. Eilidh Simpson had a team-high 12 points for the Terriers.
Rhode Island 66, LIU Brooklyn 49
For the second straight game, Rhode Island never trailed as the Rams defeated LIU Brooklyn 66-49 Saturday to complete a perfect 2-0 weekend at the LIU Turkey Classic.
A 6-0 run pulled the host Blackbirds within five points at 51-46 with 8:40 to go, but Rhode Island freshman Charise Wilson scored six straight points to push the lead back to 11 points. A Megan Straumann 3-point shot with 1:43 to go was the final dagger, as Rhode Island (3-3) got back to .500 for the season.
The Rams opened game with a 10-0 run. LIU Brooklyn (0-4) managed to tie the score twice before halftime, but was never able to take a lead.
Wilson led Rhode Island with 16 points to go with five rebounds and five assists. She was named to the all-tournament team after averaging 20.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.5 steals over the two victories.
Also named to the all-tournament team was Straumann, who matched her season high with 14 points in Saturday's win. In the two wins, Straumann shot 6-for-13 from 3-point range, providing a consistent threat from outside. Over her last three games, Straumann is 11-for-20 from beyond the arc.
George Washington 79, R/V Purdue 59
Junior Jonquel Jones posted a double-double to lead the George Washington women's basketball team to the Junkanoo Jam Freeport Division championship with a 79-59 win over Purdue on Saturday afternoon at St. Georges High School.
Jones scored all 14 of her points in the second half and added a game-high 14 rebounds en route to Most Valuable Player honors. She was joined on the All-Tournament team by senior Chakecia Miller, who tallied 14 points, five assists and four steals against the Boilermakers.
Sophomore Hannah Schaible finished with 12 points, five assists and two steals, and sophomore Caira Washingtonchipped in 10 points and five rebounds as four Colonials scored in double figures for the fifth straight game. SeniorLauren Chase added nine points and six assists and freshman Kelli Prange neared a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds off the bench.
GW (5-2) never trailed as Schaible scored on the first possession of the game and the Colonials held Purdue (4-2) scoreless for nearly five minutes before a Bridget Perry layup put the Boilermakers on the board. A 9-2 run built GW's lead to 13 points, 21-8, with 7:37 remaining, and the Colonials held a commanding 36-19 advantage at the break.
Purdue's 19 points matched a season low for a GW opponent in a half, as the Boilermakers shot just 25 percent (7-28) from the floor.
Purdue rallied early in the second half and used a 10-2 surge to pull within eight points, 46-38, with just over 12 minutes remaining. The Boilermakers would get as close as eight on three other occasions, but GW regained its double-digit lead for good on a three-point play by Jones at the 4:45 mark. The Colonials ended the game with an 18-6 run, and freshman Camila Tapias' three-pointer with 33 seconds left accounted for the game-high 20-point margin, 79-59.
GW shot nearly 51 percent (31-61) in the game and outrebounded Purdue, 43-24, marking the seventh straight game with a rebounding advantage to start the season.
April Wilson led Purdue with 15 points while Whitney Bays scored 13 and added a team-high six rebounds.
In winning the Freeport Division, GW knocked off a pair of 2014 NCAA Tournament participants in N.C. State and Purdue on back-to-back days. Both teams were also receiving votes in the national polls.
La Salle 62, Towson 49
Jasmine Alston drained a career-high 18 points in front of a hometown crowd to propel the La Salle women's basketball team to its fourth straight win, a 62-49 victory over Towson in the LIU Turkey Classic finale at LIU Brooklyn.
Alston, who also tallied a career-high eight steals in Friday's Classic opener, was named to the All-Tournament Team. She added four against the Tigers today to average 6.0 for the weekend.
Fellow New Yorker Alicia Cropper was also named to the LIU Turkey Classic All-Tournament team after averaging 11.0 ppg this weekend after returning from injury. Cropper scored 13 against the host Blackbirds yesterday and added nine points on 57.9 percent shooting today against Towson.
Micahya Owens added 10 points today for the Explorers, who improve to 4-2.
Towson's LaTorri Hines-Allen provided the majority of the offense for the Tigers, who drop to 1-3. She recorded a double-double of 29 points and 12 rebounds, with 11 of those points on 11-for-13 shooting from the free throw line.
After an early 4-3 deficit to the Tigers, the Explorers regained the lead on a Siobhan Beslow bucket down low. They never relinquished the lead, though the Tigers cut it to one on a couple of occasions in the first half. With the Explorers edging the Tigers 19-18 with five minutes left in the first half, the Explorers went on a 12-1 run to close out the half including scoring the last 10 points of the period.
George Mason 71, Mississippi Valley 62
Kristi Mokube registered her second double-double of the week Saturday with 16 points and 10 rebounds as George Mason women’s basketball beat Mississippi Valley 71-62 at the UMKC Plaza Lights Classic in Kansas City.
The first half was series of runs with the lead changing hands twice in the first 10 minutes of play. Mason started strong, with a five minute 17-4 run fueled by the play of Reana Mohamed in her first start of the season before the Devilettes quickly responded with an 18-3 run of their own to take a 22-20 lead. However, the Patriots finished the half on a 26-16 run to go into the break with a 46-38 lead.
The second half was even closer, with both sides shooting just 30 percent from the field, but the Patriots would hold the lead behind Taylor Brown’s eight points, as the redshirt junior was perfect from the charity stripe in the second half going hitting all six attempts. Brown would lead all scorers with 21 points on her way to a spot on the UMKC Plaza Classic All-Tournament team.
Arkansas 74, Richmond 55
The Richmond women’s basketball team fell to the Arkansas Razorbacks, 74-55, in the Spiders final game of the South Point Thanksgiving Shootout Saturday afternoon at South Point Arena.
The loss drops Richmond to 3-2 overall, while Arkansas improved to 6-0 on the season.
The Spiders were held to 36.7 percent from the field and were outrebounded 44-26.
Despite holding the Razorbacks to just 28.9 from the field in the first half, the Spiders fell behind in the first 20 minutes from Arkansas’ second-chance points. The Razorbacks grabbed 12 offensive rebounds to outscore Richmond 14-4 in second chances to go into the half with a 33-24 lead.
After a 21-6 run to start the second half, Arkansas remained in control for the final 12 minutes.