SHU Women at #4 Ohio State - Game Notes
12/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 19, 2005
Complete Sacred Heart vs. Ohio State Game Notes in PDF Format
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The Storyline... The Pioneers take their five-game winning streak to Columbus, Ohio Tuesday night for a date with the fourth ranked team in the nation, the Ohio State University Buckeyes. Sacred Heart is coming off a thrilling 79-78 come from behind win at Iona on Saturday, a win that saw the Pioneers claw and dig their way out of an 18-point second half hole to come away with the victory. The Buckeyes, also 6-1, had their six-game winning streak spoiled last time out, falling 64-48 in a match-up with #3-ranked Louisiana State.
The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU '89) enters his 16th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 236-188 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 110-69 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, (236) and winning percentage (.557). He also earned his first ever NEC Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year award after guiding SHU to a school record 21 wins in 2003-04. Jim Foster (Temple `80) is in his fourth season at the helm of the Ohio State women's basketball program. He has a 79-26 (.752) record in his four years as the Buckeyes coach and a 583-251 (.700) mark in his 28 years as a head coach. He guided the Buckeyes to their first-ever 30 win season and a share of the Big Ten regular season title for the first time since 1992-93 with last season's 30-5 club.
Series... The Buckeyes hold a 2-0 edge over the Pioneers in the all-time series between the two schools. The two teams met for the first time during the Pioneers inaugural Division I season, 1999-00. The Buckeyes came away with a 98-66 win over SHU on November 27, 1999 in Cambridge, Massachusetts as part of the Harvard University Tournament. The two teams would meet again two years later in Columbus, at the Value City Arena with OSU posting an 87-50 win in that meeting
Pioneers vs. the Big Ten... The Pioneers are 0-2 all-time against the Big 10 Conference. Both losses have come against tonight's opponent, the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Last Meeting with Ohio State... It is four years to the day the last time the Pioneers and Buckeyes met on the hardwood. Ohio State posted an 87-50 win in Value City Arena on December 20, 1999. The Buckeyes got 26 points from center Courtney Coleman who hit 11-of-16 from the field. Ashley Allen came off the bench to score 13 points while D'wan Shackleford tallied 12. The Buckeyes shot 56.7% as a team and forced the Pioneers into 25 turnovers. OSU were dominate in the paint, doubling Sacred Heart's inside production at 40-20 in points in the paint. SHU was led by Brooke Rutnik who was the only Pioneer in double figures with 19 points on three treys with five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals. Sacred Heart shot just 36.2% and hit only five-of-18 (.278) from behind the three-point arc.
Scouting the Buckeyes... The Ohio State women's basketball team is 6-1 on the year and ranked fourth nationally in both the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and the Associate Press Poll. The Buckeyes opened the year 6-0 but saw their winning streak snapped last time out against the #3 ranked Louisiana State Tigers. Ohio State is led by junior center Jessica Davenport who leads the team in scoring and rebounding with a double double average. Davenport is scoring 16.7 points and pulling down 10.0 rebounds per game. She also leads the team with 16 blocks and is shooting 59.5% (47-59) from the field and 80.0% (20-25) from the line. Fellow junior, guard Brandie Hoskins, is scoring at a 15.0 clip this season with a team-best 30 assists. As a team, the Buckeyes are averaging 72.7 points per game while holding teams to a paltry 46.0 points a night. The Buckeyes were picked to win the Big Ten in both the Coaches and Media Preseason Polls. Davenport was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year by both the coaches and media.
Last time out... The Pioneers battled their way out of an 18-point second half hole to come away with their fifth-straight victory, 79-78 at Iona College Saturday night. SHU led early on but a 7:24 stretch going 0-8 left the door open for the Gaels to gain control of the game. Down 24-19, Iona outscored Sacred Heart 17-2 the rest of the half to lead 36-26 at the break. The Gael lead swelled to 18 in the early going of the second half but some SHU sharp shooting got the Pioneers back in the game. Senior Nicolle Rubino led the charge, scoring 19 of her career-high 27 points in the second stanza. The Pioneers tied the game at 70-70 with 2:30 left and took a three-point lead 78-75 with 34 ticks to go. Iona tied the game on a three-point play by Martina Weber but SHU grabbed the lead back on a Kerri Burke free throw with 10 seconds left. The Pioneers secured the win when Rubino created a steal on the Gael's final possession to ice the win.
Best Start Ever... Out of the gates in 2005-06, the Pioneers are 6-1, their best-ever start to a season. Sacred Heart was 5-1 during the record setting 21-8 season in 2003-04 and the 16-13 1992-93 season. SHU has enjoyed strong starts to their seasons the past three years, jumping out at 4-1 last year, 5-1 in 2003-04 and 4-1 in 2002-03.
Streaks and Trends... The Pioneers ran their winning streak to five-straight with their 79-78 win at Iona on Saturday night. The five-game streak matches the longest streak from last season. The school record for consecutive wins is 10-straight, set during the 2003-04 season. The win also snapped a five-game losing streak to Iona, dating back to the 1978-79 season.
Rubino and Pape... NEC Award Winners... Senior Nicolle Rubino and junior Amanda Pape were named Choice Hotels Northeast Conference Players of the Week in consecutive weeks. Rubino takes home the honor this week after her career-high 27 point performance in SHU's win over Iona. Pape earned the honor last week after a 26 point effort against St. Francis-NY and an 18 point game against St. Francis-PA. This marks the first time in program history that two separate players have won the award in consecutive weeks and in the same season. Only three Pioneers have ever earned the honor in the seven years SHU has been a member of the league. Pape, Rubino and program alum Brooke Kelly (1999-03).
D-Fence...D-Fence...D-Fence... The Pioneer's 6-1 start can be credited much in part to their league leading defense. SHU's patented full-court pressure has led to 11.0 steals per game and opposing team's averaging 19.1 turnovers. Sacred Heart has done well to protect the ball themselves, posting the second best turnover margin in the league at +3.36. The Pioneers are holding teams to just 36.8% shooting from the field, 23.9% from three-point range and just 60.1 points per game, all tops in the league thus far.
SHU's 1,000-Point Club... On Thursday, December 1st, senior Nicolle Rubino became just the 10th player in Sacred Heart history to reach the 1,000-point plateau for her career. Rubino entered the Yale game needing just four point to break the mark and wasted little time in doing just that, scoring twice on the Pioneers first three possessions. She currently ranks 9th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,067 points. Quickly rocketing up the list is junior Amanda Pape, who needs just five points to break the mark. Pape has 995 points, moving her in front of Brooke Rutnik (941) and into 11th place on the all-time list. The last Pioneer to break the 1,000-point barrier prior to Rubino was Brooke Kelly (`03) during the 2002-03 season. Kelly finished her career with 1,349 points, third all-time.
Offensive Explosion... The Pioneer offense has kicked it into high gear of late, scoring 89 points against the St. Francis (PA) Red Flash, their highest total in two years, and 79 last time out at Iona. SHU has shot at least 50% in their past two games, hitting 51.6% at SFPA and 50.0% at Iona. After struggling all year from three, the last two games have seen the Pioneer shooters light it up. SHU hit nine-of-15 from behind the arc (60.0%) against the Red Flash and 10-of-20 (50.0%) at Iona, the first time they have hit 10 three's as a team since 2003. In the first five gams, SHU didn't break 30.0% from behind the arc in any game. The Pioneers now lead the NEC in scoring offense (72.9 ppg), FG% (41.8%), assists (16.00), scoring margin (+12.7) and assist/turnover ratio (1.03). They are second in three-point field goal percentage (31.8%) and third in free throw percentage (69.6%).
Nail Bitter... Trailing by 18 points at the 17 minute mark of the second half of Saturday's game at Iona, the Pioneers looked to be in for a long night against the Gaels. But the SHU offense kept at it and the shots began to drop as the Pioneers climbed their way all the way back to take the lead in the closing seconds and sneak out of New Rochelle, NY with a 79-78 win. The win was the first for the Pioneers in nearly three years when trailing with at least five minutes to play.
Big Wins... Six of the Pioneers seven games have been lopsided results with each of those game being decided by more than 16 points this season. In fact, five of their six wins have been by an average of 24.2 points per game with the Pioneers posting their biggest win of the year, 89-52, at St. Francis-PA. The 37 point win was the second-largest since joining Division I in 1999-00.
Pape Leading the NEC... Junior guard Amanda Pape has kicked her game up a notch this season and is among the NEC leaders in several offensive categories. Pape leads the league in scoring at 17.9 points per game and has improved her shooting, hitting 49.4% (43-87) from the field, second in the league. The 5-9 guard continues to be a force on the glass, pulling down 6.6 rebounds per game with 21 offensive boards. Pape's defensive intensity is the key to SHU's press with 18 steals and she has improved her passing with 22 assists as well.
Senior Star... Senior Nicolle Rubino is off to a fast start to her final season in the Red & White. The senior co-captain has been on fire since scoring her 1,000th point against Yale. She is coming off a career-high 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting against Iona that won her the NEC Player of the Week. Rubino finished with 14 points, a season-high six steals, five rebounds and three assists against St. Francis (NY) and came back with 15 points, three steals and three assists against St. Francis (PA). For the year, Rubino is shooting 52.5% (42-80) and 42.9% (9-21) from three. She is second on the club with 14.7 points per game and has 19 assists and 17 steals.
Sparks off the Bench... Coach Ed Swanson can look down his bench at any time and find someone who can provide and instant offensive spark. Freshman Liz Gruber has shown the ability to generate some instant offense averaging 5.7 points per game and had a perfect shooting game against the St. Francis-PA Red Flash, hitting five-of-five from the field, three-of-three from behind the arc for a season-high 13 points in just 11 minutes of action. Fellow freshman Rachel Hudec made an instant impact off the bench last time out against Iona, hitting three big three's to spur a Pioneer run. Center Kaitlin Sowinski is the Pioneer's top reserve in the paint, averaging 3.6 points and 3.6 rebounds with eight blocks on the year.
