Women’s basketball falls in Holy War battle
In this year’s edition of the Holy War, the St. Joe’s women’s basketball team took the floor at Jake Nevin Fieldhouse on Dec. 3. The team attempted to lift the hopes of the St. Joe’s basketball community after a tough men’s loss to 25th ranked Villanova Wildcats. However, the women faced a similar fate, as Villanova walked away with a 79-44 win.
Things got out of hand early for the Hawks against Villanova and they couldn’t recover. The first three St. Joe’s possessions ended with a turnover and the score was 13-2 in favor of the Wildcats at the under-four media. Things only got worse from there as the first half ended 39-14, ultimately leading up to Villanova’s decisive win.
From the outset, the Wildcats made scoring look effortless with crisp ball and player movement while the Hawks struggled on every offensive trip. Villanova’s sophomore guard Kelly Jekot, who entered the game averaging 11.7 points, finished the game with a career high of 27 points on 11 of 17 from the field. One of the big keys for her growth since freshman year is that she has gotten over that freshman indecisiveness.
“She’s using her natural ability to drive the ball by people where last year she didn’t know when to do that,” Villanova Head Coach Harry Perretta said.
Jekot led an attack that was shooting over 60 percent headed into the fourth quarter.
“It was the most complete game that we played all year,” Perretta said. “We just played one of those games where the ball started going in early and our defense was excellent.”
That excellent defense was on display from start to finish as St. Joe’s shot a woeful 29 percent from the field and missed all eight of their attempted three-pointers, despite leading the nation in three-point field goal percentage prior to the game. St. Joe’s did not have a player reach double figures in scoring until after a basket by senior Adashia Franklyn in the fourth quarter.
Senior Hawk guard Chelsea Woods, who finished with a double-double in last year’s matchup, was limited by the Villanova defense.
“We were just trying to take away the inside as much as we could,” Perretta said. “It was a concerted effort on our part to just zero in on [Woods].”
For St. Joe’s Head Coach Cindy Griffin, this was a very sobering loss for her and her team, who were 5-1 entering the game.
“We met a very good team on a very good day,” Griffin said. “I believe we are a good team, but we were not a good team today. I think we got outworked today quite honestly. That’s something that we can control, and we’ve got to learn from that for sure.”
The Hawks have now dropped eight straight games against ranked opponents and are 33-124 all-time against ranked teams. The next chance for Griffin’s squad to earn a win in Philadelphia will be their home game against Big 5 rival University of Pennsylvania on Dec. 11.
