STANDISH, Maine – Top-seeded Saint Joseph's College (20-5, 10-1 GNAC) will host #8 Rivier University (9-16, 3-8 GNAC) in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Women's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinal contest at the Harold Alfond Center tonight at 7:00 PM.
This evening's winner advances to the GNAC semifinals and will take on the victor of the #4 Suffolk University/#5 Norwich University quarterfinal matchup on Thursday night. In other quarterfinal action tonight, #6 Albertus Magnus College plays at #3 Emmanuel College and #7 Lasell College faces #2 Johnson & Wales University in Providence.
The GNAC Championship will be played on Saturday, February 27th. The higher seeded team hosts throughout tourney play and the conference champion earns an automatic berth into the 2016 NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Championship, which begins on March 4th.
What have you done lately?
Saint Joseph's kicks off the tourney riding a three-game winning streak with six victories in the last seven games overall. The Monks capped the regular season Saturday with an 81-58 triumph at Anna Maria College. For St. Joe's, the win over the AMCATS clinched the GNAC Tournament's top seed, as the Royal Blue finished the year in a three-way tie with Johnson & Wales and Emmanuel but defeated the former during the season and posted a higher overall winning percentage than the latter to emerge as the #1 seed.
Rivier enters the 2016 GNAC Tournament having lost nine of the last 10 games, including a regular-season ending 76-72 setback at the hands of Norwich University on Saturday. The Raiders' record is somewhat deceiving, however, as six of their eight conference losses have been by 12 points or fewer, including four single-digit setbacks.
Who to watch – Saint Joseph's:
Center Morgan Cahill (Yarmouth, Maine), the Monks' lone senior, leads the team in scoring (15.1 PPG), rebounding (8.4 RPG), field goals made (323), field goal percentage (47.7%), free throws made (69), and blocked shots (55). One of the top post players in the conference and a four-year starter, Cahill has notched eight double-doubles this winter and 34 in her career overall. Nearing the end of a basketball career rarely seen at Saint Joseph's, the two-year team captain ranks among the program's elite in points (1,588), rebounds (849), field goals made (634), and free throws made (320) and is the Monks' career blocked shots leader with 213 rejections.
Freshman guard Kelsi McNamara (West Newbury, Mass.) has been a welcome addition to the Monks' starting five and averages 14.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, and 1.7 steals per contest and ranks among the GNAC leaders in three-pointers made (58, 3rd), three-point percentage (41.4%, 2nd), FT% (80%, 5th), and assists (100, 6th).
With five additional players averaging north of five points per game, the Monks possess perhaps the most depth in the conference. Freshman forward Emily Benway (Rochester, N.H.), the most recent GNAC Rookie of the Week honoree, averages 6.9 points and 4.7 boards per game while sophomore Emily Quirion (Augusta, Maine), freshman Hannah Marks (Waldoboro, Maine), junior Emily Kehoe (Perkinsville, Vt.), and sophomore Norma Waggett (Saugus, Mass.) each contribute at least 5.0 PPG.
Who to watch – Rivier:
The Raiders feature a three-headed scoring machine, with junior guard Caitlyn Perry (Nashua, N.H.), freshman guard Kaylee Kacavas (Dracut, Mass.), and junior forward Savanna Butterfield (Londonderry, N.H.) accounting for nearly 65% of the team's offensive output this winter.
Perry currently ranks second in the GNAC in scoring with 18.3 PPG and is also second in free throws made (120) and fourth in free-throw percentage (80.5%). Kacavas contributes 14.2 PPG on average and ranks fourth in the conference in three-point success (37.6%) and has scored as many as 29 points in a game this season. Butterfield, the only Raider to start all 25 contests this year, is one of the GNAC's best all-around players and averages 12.3 points and 8.8 rebounds with nine double-doubles, 46 blocks, and 35 steals this winter.
Recipe for success – Saint Joseph's:
St. Joe's currently leads the conference in three-point success (31.7%) and free-throw percentage (70.7%) and third in scoring (69.2), field goal percentage (38.6%), free throws made per game (14.4), assists per game (16.1), fewest turnovers per game (15.8), steals per game (9.7), and scoring defense (57.4). The Monks are 10-1 at home (the Raiders are 3-10 on the road) this year, with the only setback in Standish coming at the hands of nationally ranked University of New England on January 25th.
The Monks' bench has proven to be a major factor this season and contributes 24.5 points per game on average.
Recipe for success – Rivier:
The Raiders enter tonight's game as one of the top free-throw shooting teams in the GNAC, as rank second in free throws made and free throws attempted, 16.4 and 23.8, respectively, and third in FT percentage (69.2%). Also, if the three-pointers are falling for Rivier it likely will not be a good sign for the Monks – the Raiders have shot 32.2% from beyond the arc during nine victories and just 25.6% from downtown in losses this winter.
Attitude reflects leadership:
Head Coach Mike McDevitt '83, now in his 23rd season at the helm for the Monks and 24th overall as a collegiate clipboard carrier, is among the most successful coaches in all of NCAA DIII Women's Basketball. With a 453-180 (.716) career record, McDevitt ranks 21st among active coaches in winning percentage and 22nd in victories. Only four coaches in New England have a higher win rate and just three in the region have more wins.
During his tenure at Saint Joseph's, Coach McDevitt has guided the Monks to at least 20 wins in 15 different seasons, the 10th-highest total in the history of NCAA DIII Women's Basketball. During his career, McDevitt has garnered eight Coach of the Year honors, including the GNAC Coach of the Year award following the 2014-15 campaign.
Paul Williams is in his fifth season as the head coach of the Raiders and owns an 80-76 (.513) career record as a collegiate skipper. Williams was named as the GNAC Coach of the Year after leading Rivier to an 18-10 record and an ECAC Tournament berth during the 2011-12 season. Coach Williams guided the Raiders to the only 20-win season in program history with a 20-8 record and another trip to the ECAC's in 2014.
The last time we met:
Saint Joseph's slipped past Rivier, 64-55, at the Alfond Center on Tuesday, February 2nd with McNamara recording 15 points and eight rebounds and Cahill producing 10 points, nine caroms, and four blocks in the narrow victory. The Monks trailed by as many as seven points in the first quarter but took the lead for good with a stellar second quarter, which included a game-impacting 9-0 run.
The Raiders heated up in the fourth quarter, shooting 52.6% (10-19) from the floor while outscoring the Monks by a 25-16 margin in the final frame. Trailing by 19 (56-37) with 6:27 remaining, Rivier mounted an 18-8 scoring burst as Kacavas hitting a pair of three-pointers in the closing 36 seconds, but the effort proved to be too late.
Historically speaking:
Saint Joseph's is 10-4 in the history of the series with Rivier University and has defeated the Raiders in four consecutive meetings dating back to the 2013-14 campaign. In eight of the last 10 meetings between the GNAC rivals, the winning margin has been less than 10 points. The Monks and Raiders have met twice in the playoffs with St. Joe's coming out on top on both occasions – 59-58 in a GNAC semifinal on February 23rd, 2012 and 79-72 in a conference quarterfinal on February 27th, 2014.
#GOMONKS
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
