December 9, 1998
PHILADELPHIA - In Big Five women's basketball action, the host St. Joseph's Hawks defeated the Villanova Wildcats, 55-54, in a thriller played at the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. With the win, St. Joseph's improves to 4-4 overall and 2-0 in Big Five play, while Villanova falls to 4-4 overall and 3-1 in Big Five action.
With the scored tied 18-18 with 7:34 left in the first half, the Hawks went on a 10-0 run to take a 28-18 lead at the 4:40 mark. Senior guard Melissa Coursey had five points in the Hawk spurt.
St. Joseph's would push the advantage to 34-20, before the Cats closed the lead to 34-26 at halftime.
Villanova scored the first eight points of the second half to cut the lead to 34-32, before St.
Joseph's answered with a 9-0 run to increase the lead back to 43-32 with 13:17 left in regulation.
Trailing 47-36 with 8:53 left, the Wildcats made a furious comeback to tie the game at 49-49 with 3:20 remaining. Junior Jenea Skeeters and sophomore Brandi Barnes led the comeback, as Skeeters had six points and Barnes five in the run. After St. Joseph's center Jana Lichnerova gave the Hawks a 51-49 lead on a five-foot jumper, Wildcat sophomore Lauren Pellicane answered with a three-point field goal giving the Cats a 52-51 advantage.
After Hawk forward Susan Moran scored on a baseline jumper to give St. Joseph's a 53-52 lead, Skeeters scored on a driving lay-up with 26 seconds left putting Villanova up 54-53.
With 14 seconds remaining in regulation, Moran was fouled by Wildcat center Brandi Barnes.
Moran made both free throws to give the Hawks a 55-54 lead. Villanova got two shots at the basket in the closing seconds, but Skeeters missed a 10-footer and sophomore Mimi Riley's off-balance seven-footer was no good and the Hawks escaped with the one point victory.
Skeeters led all scorers with 21 points, while Barnes finished with 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Barnes also grabbed nine rebounds. Senior forward Jenn Sliwa had seven assists in the losing effort. Coursey led St. Joseph's with 15 points. The Hawks had a decided advantage at the foul line making good on 19-of-20, while Villanova was just 5-of-5 from the charity stripe.
