STANDISH, ME – Saint Joseph's (10-5, 2-1 GNAC) defeated Johnson & Wales University (4-11, 1-2 GNAC), 70-44, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference Women's Basketball contest at the Harold Alfond Center on Monday afternoon. Freshman forward Lindsay Moore (Somersworth, NH) registered her first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds in the lopsided victory.
Four SJC players scored at least 10 points in the win, which was the Monks' eighth victory in the last 10 contests. Megan McDevitt '12 (Cumberland, ME), who made four three-pointers, and Ashley Geel '12 (St. George, ME) both netted 12 points and Abby Young '14 (North Yarmouth, ME) added 11 in the conference triumph.
Ayla Walter '13 (Mount Pleasant, SC) and Morgan Wilson '11 (Lagrangeville, NY) both tallied 10 points for the Wildcats. Kaitlyn Lefort '12 (Pawtucket, RI) netted nine points and grabbed three steals and Marina Millian '13 (Chester, NY) chipped in with eight points in a losing effort.
Saint Joseph's grabbed 51 rebounds and dealt 22 assists – both season-highs - on 25 field goals in the one-sided contest. The Monks took the lead with a three-pointer from Danyelle Shufelt '13 (Sutton, VT) 3:27 into the game and proceeded to hold an advantage for the duration of the contest.
The Royal Blue took complete control of the game with a 20-4 run mid-way through the opening stanza. Leading 13-9 after Lefort drained a trifecta for the visitors at the 12:49 mark, St. Joe's managed to score eight unanswered points over the next three minutes. The SJC outburst concluded when Moore hit a pair of freebies to put the Monks ahead by a convincing 33-11 margin with 5:53 remaining in the first half.
McDevitt proceeded to put an exclamation point on a dominant half with two trifectas in the closing 16 seconds, including a long-distance trey at the buzzer to put her team up by 26, 45-19, heading into intermission.
In the first half, Saint Joseph's shot 41% from the field, 33.3% from three-point range and 66.7% from the charity stripe. Johnson & Wales shot 30.8% overall and 25% from beyond the arc and went 1-2 from the FT over the first 20 minutes.
McDevitt shot 4-6 from downtown and led all first-half scorers with 12 points. Lefort paced the Wildcats with eight points in the opening stanza.
Geel opened the second half with three consecutive buckets to put the Monks on top by a game-high 30 points, 51-21, just 1:43 into the latter period.
St. Joe's held a 57-30 cushion after Amelia Lamb '12 (Topsham, ME) made a jumpshot at the 13:20 mark, but Johnson & Wales managed to cut the deficit to 17 points with a 10-0 run over the following five minutes. Millian netted six points for the Wildcats during the surge.
The visitors would get no closer, however, as the Royal Blue countered with a 9-0 outbreak - capped by a Shufelt trifecta - to secure a 66-40 lead with 4:44 remaining.
Overall, Saint Joseph's shot 41% (25-68) from the field, 27.3% (6-22) from beyond the arc and 66.7% (14-21) from the FT line. JWU countered by shooting 33.3% (18-54) from the floor, 30.8% (4-13) from three-point range and 57.1% (4-7) from the charity stripe.
The Monks held a 51-32 advantage on the glass and forced 22 JWU turnovers with nine steals in the victory, which is the first over the Wildcats in SJC program history. Prior to this afternoon, Johnson & Wales had defeated St. Joe's in all three meetings dating back to the 2007-08 campaign when the Monks first entered the GNAC.
Freshman point guard Mackenzie Dufour (Augusta, ME) added five assists, Shufelt contributed eight points and Theresa Hendrix '14 (Portland, ME/Cheverus) chipped in with five points and three assists for Saint Joseph's.
St. Joe's will host Bates College in a non-conference contest on Wednesday evening at 5:30 PM, while Johnson & Wales will host Rivier College on Saturday at 1:00 PM.
Photo courtesy of Rick Young, ryoung3@me.com
Postgame interview with Coach McDevitt: