PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (March 5, 2011) – Senior guard Janae Weldon of Goldey-Beacom College registered 30 points in leading the Lightning to a 66-54 upset of top seed Holy Family University in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Women's Basketball Championship game Saturday evening. With the win, the Lightning have secured their first-ever trip to the NCAA Division II East Region Tournament, which will begin next week.

Goldey-Beacom ended HFU's NCAA Division II record 110-game regular season conference winning streak and 71-game home winning streak at the Campus Center on Jan. 13 with a 64-51 win. The Tigers bounced back and ran off 13 straight wins to end the regular-season, including seven at home, but once again fell to GBC. With this historic victory, the Lightning became the first-ever CACC team to defeat Holy Family twice in one season.

Holy Family, ranked 15^th in the most recent USA Today/ESPN Division II Poll and No. 1 in the region, fell to 23-4 overall. Despite a 37-1 regular season conference record the past two seasons, HFU has come up short in the Finals twice in a row now, falling to Nyack College last season. The Tigers will await their seeding on Sunday as an at-large bid.

Weldon was 9-of-16 from the field (5-of-12 from three-point range) and 7-of-10 at the foul line as she had arguably the best game of her four-year Lightning career when it mattered most. Redshirt-junior guard Jacinda Jones (five points, five rebounds, four assists in the Finals) and sophomore forward Devonne Richardson (10 points, season-high 16 rebounds) joined Weldon on the All-Tournament Team.

GBC also got a big lift off the bench from sophomore forward Irene Hudson (eight points, five rebounds) and redshirt-sophomore Ashley Rosario (eight points, two rebounds, one assist).

Collectively, the Lightning defense held Holy Family to 16-of-65 shooting (24.6-percent) from the field, including 6-of-35 (17-percent) in the second half where the Tigers were 0-of-13 from long-range.

In the Lightning's two wins over HFU this year, they held the highest-scoring team in the conference to 52.5 points per-game (over 25 points less than their average), .263 shooting from the field (HFU normally shoots at a .432 clip) and .192 shooting from long-range, when they lead the league with a .362 three-point FG percentage. The Tigers entered the championship coming off an 82-63 semifinal win over Caldwell during which they shot 45-percent from the field and 47-percent (8-of-17) from behind-the-arc.

It was raining threes for a very frenetic first five minutes of the game as the first seven field-goals of the game were all from downtown. Weldon and Richardson each knocked down a pair of treys in what were all of the Lightning's first four attempts from the field, and helped them to grab an early 12-9 lead.

The two teams combined to make 11 attempts from behind-the-arc (GBC 6, HFU 5) in a first-half that featured 10 lead changes and eight ties. Reserve guard Molly Hanlon (two points, two rebounds), in for the injured Tigers' starting point guard Lauren Peters (three points, two assists, six minutes played), made a layup with 13 ticks left to put the hosts in front, 30-28 at intermission.

Nearly two minutes went by in the second half before Weldon's jumper sent the game to its ninth tie at 30-all. The Tigers responded with four consecutive points, including a pair of free-throws by Lindsey Tennett to go up 34-30.

Trailing 36-32 with 15:18 left to play, the Lightning went on a game-defining 18-3 surge over the next 6:26 to take a 50-39 lead just past the nine-minute mark. Jones started things off with a three-pointer off an assist from Richardson. Rosario put in two fast-break layups and Weldon converted a traditional three-point play, knocked down a three, and hit a pair of free-throws during the run. Hudson capped it off with a jumper at 8:52.

Holy Family made a run of its own to cut the deficit to three (55-52) with 3:20 left to play, but two consecutive jumpers by Weldon and a pair of free-throws by Rosario put GBC back up by nine, 61-52, with 1:47 showing on the clock. The second of Weldon's two jumpers was the product of a second-chance opportunity created by a big offensive rebound by Arielle Alford.

GBC was just 6-of-9 down the stretch from the charity stripe, but it was no matter because in the final 3:20 of the game, HFU managed just an Erin Mann layup with 12 seconds left in regulation, and the Lightning came out victorious, 66-54.

Meghan Gibson led Holy Family (23-4) with 14 points, while Erin Mann tallied 13 points and pulled down nine rebounds with three steals. Holy Family shot just 19-percent (5-for-26) from three-point range.

2010-11 CACC Women's Basketball Tournament

Quarter-Finals – Monday, Feb. 28
N#1 Bloomfield 56, N#4 Dominican 42
N#2 Caldwell 65, N#3 Felician 54
S#1 Holy Family 72, S#4 Philadelphia 58
S#3 Goldey-Beacom 57, S#2 USciences 54

Semi-Finals - Friday, March 4 at Holy Family University
Holy Family 83, Caldwell 62
Goldey-Beacom  62, Bloomfield 57

Championship Game – Saturday, March 5 at Holy Family University
Goldey-Beacom 66, Holy Family 54

All-Tournament Team
Janae Weldon, Goldey-Beacom College – Most Valuable Player
Devonne Richardson, Goldey-Beacom College
Jacinda Jones, Goldey-Beacom College
Catherine Carr, Holy Family University
Lindsey Tennett, Holy Family University
Torey Jones, Caldwell College 
Ivettlis Castro, Bloomfield College
Quay Baskerville, Felician College