HOLY FAMILY WOMEN AND PHILADELPHIA MEN FALL AT NCAA REGIONALS
NEW HAVEN, CT – The Holy Family University women and Philadelphia University men both fell on Saturday at their respective NCAA Division II East Region basketball tournaments to conclude their stellar seasons. The No. 2 and tournament host Holy Family lost to third seed, Stonehill, in the women’s semi-finals, 72-61. Philadelphia, the No. 8 seed in the men’s event, fell to top seed and host, C.W. Post, 73-51 in first round action.
Sophomore forward Catherine Carr (Bernardsville, N.J./Bernards)
scored a game-high 26 points, but it wasn’t enough in the
loss to Stonehill at the Campus Center. Holy Family ends its
2008-09 season at 26-6. It was the team’s sixth consecutive
trip to the NCAA Regional Tournament and second straight as the
host.
Carr, the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Player of
the Year, shot 11-of-21 from the field, including 9-for-13 in the
second half. She ends the season 10 points shy of reaching the
1,000-career point plateau.
Freshman guard Lauren Peters (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks W.)
added 12 points and tied career-highs with five rebounds and four
steals. Senior forward Melissa Brooks (Levittown, Pa./Neshaminy)
equaled a career-high by dishing out six assists to go with nine
points. Brooks finishes her career with 1,115 points, which is 14th
on the program’s all-time scoring list. She is also ninth on
the all-time rebounding list with 523.
For Stonehill, forward Bethany Tighe showed the way with 22 points,
13 coming in the first half, and eight rebounds. Forward Kesley
Simmonds added 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three
blocks. Guards Emily Rousseau and Megan Methven scored 12 and 11
points, respectively.
Stonehill led coming out of the locker room to open the second half, 31-25. The lead grew to 35-25 after the Skyhawks scored the first four points of the half. Holy Family made its first comeback attempt by answering with eight unanswered points to pull within 35-33 with 14:01 left. The margin went back to 10 after Tighe and guard Kristen McWhirter connected on back-to-back threes to make the score 49-39. Again, Holy Family fought back, this time with a 14-6 run, capped by a Brooks jumper, to get within a basket (55-53). Stonehill used a 9-1 spurt to regain its double-digit lead (64-54) with 1:35 left. The Skyhawks sealed the game with eight consecutive made free throws.
The loss for Philadelphia (25-6) at the men’s regional halted its nine-game win streak that spanned back to February 10th. Junior guard Russell Frederick (Baltimore, MD/ Calvert Hall) led PhilaU with 14 points and three assists, while CWP's Jonathan Schmidt had a game-high 25 points.
The Pioneers jumped on Philadelphia from the start and commenced
the contest with an 11-0 run in the first six minutes, until PhilaU
junior forward Malcolm Ingram (Philadelphia, PA/ Solebury Prep)
scored four of the Rams’ six unanswered points to make it
11-6 at 12:02. Ingram grabbed 10 points and 11 rebounds in the
loss.
PhilaU senior guard Mike Dunn (Harrisburg, PA/ Central Dauphin)
nailed a trey at 4:24 to make it 20-11, the first good three-ball
of the game. Junior forward Mike Yocum (Dresher, PA/ Episcopal
Academy) knocked down two at the charity stripe to cut the Pioneer
lead to 20-13. Dunn had 11 points (3-7 from beyond the arc) and
Yocum finished with 10 points, four boards and two blocks on the
night.
The Rams went into the half trailing 26-13. PhilaU shot just 22-percent from the floor in the half, and 35-percent in the game.
The second half opened with Frederick dropping in his first points of the night with a trey at the 19:00 mark, but the Pioneers rallied 7-0 run to pull ahead 37-16. The Rams cut the deficit to 14 on a Yocum jumper and Frederick elevated to nail a trey at 8:19 to make it 50-38, but that would be as close as PhilaU got. CWP closed out the contest on a 23-13 run to seal the 73-51 triumph. A bright spot for the Rams was senior guard Carroll Mitchell (Baltimore, MD/ Towson Catholic), who finished out his four years with a career-high six points in eight minutes.