Jan. 21, 2008

Sacred Heart vs. Fairleigh Dickinson Game Notes in PDF Format

Sacred Heart Pioneers (11-7, 6-1 NEC) vs. Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (7-10, 3-3 NEC)

Game #19 - Monday, January 21, 2008 - 7:00 pm - Fairfield, Conn. - William H. Pitt Center (2,100)

Radio: SacredHeartPioneers.com

The Storyline... Sacred Heart is looking to rebound from a 74-63 loss at Mount St. Mary's last time out as they play host to Fairleigh Dickinson Monday night. The Pioneers saw their five-game winning streak snapped as they were dealt their first Northeast Conference loss of the season at the Mount. Freshman Alisa Apo continued to light it up offensively, netting 20 in the loss as she picked up her third Choice Hotels NEC Rookie of the Week Award on Monday. The Knights make the return trip to Connecticut after winning 74-45 at Central Connecticut Saturday afternoon.

Series... Sacred Heart leads the all-time series, 13-1 and have won nine-straight over the Knights after sweeping both meetings last season. Fairleigh Dickinson's lone win in the series came during the 2001-02 campaign when they posted a 64-60 win in the Rothman Center. The two teams have met once in the post season, an 83-55 Pioneer win in the opening round of the 2005-06 NEC Tournament. SHU is 7-0 at home against the Knights and 6-1 in Teaneck, NJ.

The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU `89) is in his 18th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 289-209 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 163-90 record since joining the Division I ranks in 1999-00. Swanson is the program's longest tenured coach and is the all-time leader in coaching wins, (289) and winning percentage (.580). He earned his first ever NEC Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year award after guiding SHU to a then school record 21 wins in 2003-04. Peter Cinella (Western New England `90) was named Fairleigh Dickinson's head women's basketball coach back in June, becoming the program's sixth head coach. Cinella came to FDU after 14 years at American International College where he was the winningest coach in that program's history at 291-130. He led the school to nine NCAA Tournaments, two trips to the Elite Eight and an appearance in the 2006 NCAA Championship game.

Last Time Out... Dominique Mazzuchi notched her first career-double double with 26 points and 12 rebounds to lead Mount St. Mary's to a 74-63 win over visiting Sacred Heart Saturday afternoon. The loss snapped the Pioneers five-game winning streak and also ended a 13-game SHU winning streak in the series. The Pioneers jumped in front in the early minutes, opening the game with three-point makes from freshmen Maggie Cosgrove, Alisa Apo and junior Stephanie Ryan to lead 9-4. The Mount showed early on they were game and pulled out in front by front by four, 19-15, midway through the half as senior Tiffany Green buried back-to-back three's of her own. Sacred Heart responded and took a six-point advantage, 31-25, with three minute to play but a Mazzuchi three with 46 seconds was followed by a long Green three just before the horn to send the Mount into the locker room up 37-36. The Mount carried the momentum of Green's three over to the second half and never looked back opening the second stanza on a 14-4 run to take a double-digit lead with 13:40 showing on the clock. Mazzuchi scored seven on the run and kept the hot hand, hitting two more three's as the Mount extended their lead to 20, 68-48, with 9:36 to play. SHU tried to chip away at the Mountaineer advantage and whittled the lead down to 12 with just over five minutes to play but four-straight turnovers on the next four Pioneers possessions halted any hope of a comeback. Apo lead all Pioneers scorers with 20 points in the loss, coming on seven-of-12 shooting. The freshman guard tied her career-high pulling down eight boards. Junior Kaitlin Sowinski scored 19 points but shot just nine-of-22 in the game

Scouting the Knights... Fairleigh Dickinson comes in at 7-10 on the year and 3-3 in NEC play after a 74-45 win over Central Connecticut on Saturday afternoon. The Knights have won four of their last six. Senior forward Jennifer Walkling is the team's leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 16.2 points and 9.3 rebounds per game on the year. Walkling is leading the NEC in rebounding and is fifth among the league scoring leaders. As a team, FDU is second in the conference in rebounding averaging 40.8 caroms per game.

Last Meeting with Fairleigh Dickinson... Seniors Amanda Pape and Jasmine Walker posted double doubles to lead the Pioneers to a 69-50 win at Fairleigh Dickinson last February. The Pioneers out scored the Knights 33-19 in the second half, getting a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds from Pape and 12 points and 10 boards from Walker. SHU got out to a 7-0 lead that grew into a 15-3 advantage by the 15 minute mark. The Knights responded with an 11-3 run over the next four minutes to cut the SHU lead to four, 18-14, and then got it to three, 24-21, at the 7:23 mark. After a SHU 10-2 run, FDU closed out the half with a quick 8-3 rally to send the two teams to the break with the Pioneers up 36-31. Sacred Heart used another run to extend their lead in the opening minutes of the second half. The Pioneers grabbed a 12-point lead, 47-35, five and a half minutes in before the Knights used one more rally to cut the lead to single digits. SHU put the game with an 11-2 run on the way to out scoring the Knights 18-7 the rest of the way. Pape led four Pioneers in double figures, shooting nine-of-17 from the field and seven-of-11 at the line en route to her 26 points. Walker's line was filled out by a career-high five assists, four steals and two blocks.

Pioneers in the Northeast Conference... Sacred Heart is beginning their ninth season of play in the Northeast Conference. The Pioneers have posted a 112-39 conference record, having never finished lower then tied for third in the final league standings. The Pioneers have won back-to-back NEC Regular Season Championships and laid claim to the 2006 NEC title winning the league tournament. Head Coach Swanson is closing in on becoming the conference's all-time leader in regular season NEC wins at 112. Bill Sheahan from Mount St. Mary's is the all-time leader at 124 victories.

Team News and Notes... - The Pioneers extended one streak last week and saw two others snapped as they finished with a win over St. Francis-NY but lost at Mount St. Mary's. The Pioneer win over the Terriers was their 14th-straight in the series. SHU has not lost to SFNY since joining the NEC in 1999-00. On the flip side, the Pioneers went into Saturday's contest with the Mount holding a 13-game winning streak dating back to 2001 but where stopped cold, 74-63. The loss also ended the Pioneer's season-long five game streak and handed them their first NEC loss of the season.

- As one of the league's top defensive teams, SHU saw the Mountaineers explode in Saturday's loss, trailing by as many as 20 in the second half. The 74 points allowed to the Mount was the second most this season (75 at La Salle in overtime). Coming into the game the Pioneers had held 11 opponents under 60 points this year, going 8-3 in those games. SHU has four times held opponents under 50 points, going 4-0.

- Freshman Alisa Apo won her third NEC Rookie of the Week on Monday and her second-straight. Apo continued to have the hot hand on offense putting up a 15 point effort against SFNY and 20 point game at the Mount. Apo is 9-of-16 from behind the arc in her last three games and is averaging 15.1 points in NEC play this year. She leads the NEC in three-point shooting, hitting 44.9% (22-49) from behind the arc.

- Junior Kaitlin Sowinski extended her streak of games in double figures to 18-straight. Sowinski has led SHU in scoring 11 of the 18 games this season. She ranks fourth in the NEC is scoring average (17.6 ppg) and second in field goal percentage (54.2%). - Sowinski is among the nation's leaders in blocked shots with 64 on the year. The junior ranks 5th nationally averaging 3.6 per game. Sowinski has five games this season with five or more blocks. Her four swats at Mount St. Mary's puts the junior over the 200 block mark for her career (202).

Apo Nabs Another Rookie Award... Apo claimed Choice Hotels NEC Rookie of the Week honors for the second consecutive week and third time in four weeks. The week after she torched defending league champion Robert Morris for a career-high 23 points, the sharpshooting rookie totaled 35 points over two outings this past week. She helped Sacred Heart to its sixth league win, a 63-47 triumph over St. Francis (NY), by racking up 15 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Apo turned in another good individual effort in a setback to the Mount, notching 20 points, eight boards, and three assists. She shot 11-of-24 (.440) from the field on the week, including an impressive 5-of-11 clip from downtown.