Monks Capture First Women's Basketball GNAC Title

STANDISH, Maine - #2 Saint Joseph's College (23-5, 10-1 GNAC) defeated #8 Norwich University 15-13, 4-7 GNAC), 63-47, to claim the 2014 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Women's Basketball Championship at the Harold Alfond Center on Saturday afternoon. Senior forward Abby Young (North Yarmouth, Maine) tallied 19 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in the victory and earned GNAC Tournament Most Valuable Player honors for her play in the Monks' three tourney contests.

With the win, Saint Joseph's claims the program's first GNAC Championship in seven seasons as a conference-member and earns an automatic qualifier into the NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament. The 64-team field - comprised of conference winners and at-large berths from around the country - will be announced on Monday and the first round of the national tournament is set to begin on Friday, March 7th.

The conference championship is the 12th in the 37-year history of the SJC Women's Basketball program, but the first since the Monks defeated Husson University, 69-50, in the Maine Athletic Conference Tournament Championship on February 26th, 2001.

The berth into the NCAA Tournament is a first for the Saint Joseph's women's basketball program. Before leaving the NAIA – as an institution – prior to the 2002-03 campaign, the Monks made eight trips to the NAIA National Tournament.

For Norwich, the loss brings an abrupt ending to an improbable postseason run. The Cadets opened the tournament with a thrilling 84-78 overtime win over 15-time GNAC Champion Emmanuel College, the top seed in the tourney, and advanced to the championship with a 72-59 semifinal victory over #5 Johnson & Wales University on Thursday. Featuring just three seniors – Tylita Butler (Lexington Park, Md.), Kristin Brown (Williamstown, Vt.) and Erin Clark (Newbury, Vt.) – Norwich is primed to make another lengthy GNAC Tournament run in 2015.

Sophomore center Morgan Cahill (Yarmouth, Maine) also produced a double-double with 16 points and a game-high 13 rebounds and added four blocked shots in the Monks' historic victory. Senior guard Theresa Hendrix (Scarborough, Maine/Cheverus) played perhaps the best game of her career and contributed 11 points, six rebounds and four steals, senior Skyler Makkinje (Hillsboro, N.H.) added nine points off a 3-5 performance from downtown, and senior Mackenzie Dufour (Augusta, Maine) contributed eight points, six assists and four rebounds in the victory.

Norwich junior Aliah Curry (Windsor, Mass.) led the Cadets with 14 points while Clark recorded 10 points and five boards, Brown netted nine off a trio of three-pointers, and freshman forward Heather LeBlanc (Sanford, Maine) chipped in with seven points and seven caroms in a losing effort.

Saint Joseph's held the lead for all but the opening minutes in today's title bout, as Brown connected from long distance on the Cadets' first possession lifted the visitors to a 3-2 edge 36 seconds into play. The contest stood at a 5-5 deadlock three minutes later when junior guard Kelsey Lotti (South Yarmouth, Mass.) hit a jumper off a Katrina Laidlaw (Dunblane, Scotland) pass, but the Monks embarked on a 10-0 run immediately thereafter, with Hendrix scoring the final five to put the Royal Blue up 15-5 with 14:36 before the break.

Norwich countered with a 7-2 outbreak, as a Curry jumper cut the visitors' deficit down to 17-12 just over two minutes later. The Monks responded with eight unanswered points and secured a 25-12 cushion after Young capped the surge with a layup off an offensive rebound at the 8:32 mark. Saint Joseph's led by at least nine points for the rest of the opening period and carried a 31-20 advantage into intermission.

Saint Joseph's seemed to struggle to regain momentum early in the second stanza and Norwich took heed, as the Cadets outscored the Monks by an 8-4 tally early in the frame to creep back into play. With their lead cut down to seven (35-28), St. Joe's received five quick points from Dufour, who nailed a three-pointer at the 13:56 mark and made a pair of freebies after being fouled on a fast break following a steal by Young at midcourt, to make it a 40-28 game with 13:32 remaining.

The conference counterparts essentially traded blows over the following eight minutes as St. Joe's held a 53-42 lead after Brown drained a trifecta with 5:46 left. The Monks proceeded to put the game out of reach with the help of an 8-1 offensive burst, which was capped with a pair of Young freebies to put the hosts on top by a game-high 18 points with 2:08 on the clock.

The two teams combined to make just 20 attempts from the FT line with 28 total fouls (SJC 15, Norwich 13) in a well-played game that required only 90 minutes to complete. This statistic certainly played in the Monks' favor, as the Cadets made 53 free throws in 65 attempts combined in tourney wins over Emmanuel and Johnson & Wales earlier this week.

Curry, who went an astounding 29-30 from the stripe during the two GNAC Tournament wins, was 4-4 on freebie shots today and went 0-7 from three-point distance, marking just the second time all season the junior has gone without a making a three-pointer and first such instance since December 10th. Curry, a prolific long-range shooter who has netted 220 three-point field goals in just three seasons, has gone without making a shot from beyond the arc just four times in her career.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM:

Jaclyn Penniman – Rivier University

D'Ana Rolle – Johnson & Wales University

Aliah Curry – Norwich University

Kelsey Lotti – Norwich University

Mackenzie Dufour – Saint Joseph's College

Morgan Cahill – Saint Joseph's College

MVP: Abby Young – Saint Joseph's College

*Release courtesy of Saint Joseph's (ME) Sports Information Dept.