Pioneers Return to the Court Wednesday Night at Lehigh
12/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 17, 2007
Sacred Heart vs. Lehigh Game Notes in PDF Format 
Sacred Heart Pioneers (5-4, 2-0 NEC) vs. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (3-6, 0-0 Patriot)
Game #10 - Wednesday, December 19, 2007 - 7:00 pm - Bethlehem, Pa. - Stabler Arena (5,600)
The Storyline... Sacred Heart returns to action on Wednesday night traveling to Lehigh University. Both the Pioneers and Mountain Hawks will be looking to shake off an eight-day layoff as the two schools meet on the hardwood for the first time since the 2001-02 season. SHU is coming off back-to-back wins in Northeast Conference action last week, 61-58 at Monmouth and 71-40 at Central Connecticut, and have won four of their last five after an 0-3 start to the season. Lehigh is 3-6 on the year and coming off a 67-53 loss at home to Ohio University last Monday night.
Series... The all-time series is tied, 2-2. The first-ever meeting between the two schools took place during 1998-99, Sacred Heart's final transition season before joining of the ranks of Division I. The Mountain Hawks posted a 76-73 win at home that season. The Pioneers posted wins in each of the following seasons, a 64-61 win at home in 1999-2000 and 70-52 at Lehigh in 2000-01. The Mountain Hawks evened the series in 2001-02 by posting a 65-50 win in Fairfield.
The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU `89) is in his 18th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 283-206 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 157-87 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, (283) and winning percentage (.579). 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. Sue Troyan (Dickinson `88) is in her 13th season at the head of the Lehigh women's basketball program. Troyan holds a 164-187 (.471) career record since taking over the Mountain Hawk coaching duties in 1995. She guided the school to their only Patriot League Championship during the 1996-97 campaign. Prior to taking over the basketball program, Troyan was the head softball coach from 1991 through 1995, three times leading her teams to the Patriot League title.
Pioneers vs. the Patriot League... The Sacred Heart Pioneers are 8-7 all-time against teams from the Patriot League. The Pioneers hold their biggest advantage over Lafayette with a 4-1 mark. SHU is tied in the all-time series with Lehigh, 2-2, and Colgate, 1-1. The Pioneers are 1-2 against Bucknell and 0-1 against Army. SHU is 0-1 against Holy Cross, but their meeting took place during the 1980-81 season in the Pioneer's Division II days. Sacred Heart was 1-3 against Army during their Division II tenure as well. The only team Sacred Heart has not faced from the league is Navy.
Last Time Out... Junior Stephanie Ryan led three players in double figures with 15 points and seven rebounds as the Pioneers improved stayed perfect in early season NEC play with a 71-40 win at Central Connecticut last Monday. The Pioneers shot a season-high 51.9% (27-52) from the field while holding an opponent to their lowest point total of the year. The Blue Devils were within 11 midway through the second half but a 17-2 run opened the Pioneer's biggest lead as they outscored Central 27-7 over the final 10 minutes. Central finished with 28 turnovers leading to 41 Pioneer points on the other end. The Pioneers hit 42.9% (6-14) from behind the arc and finished with a season-best 21 assists. Ryan added three steals and an assist to her game totals, hitting six-of-11 from the floor on the night. Fellow junior Kaitlin Sowinski found double figures for the ninth-straight game, scoring 12 points with eight rebounds and three blocks. Off the SHU bench, freshman Alisa Apo added 14 points.
Scouting the Mountain Hawks... The Lehigh women's basketball team is out to a 3-6 start to their season coming off a 67-53 loss at home to Ohio University last Monday. The Mountain Hawks own wins over Fordham (46-33), North Florida (54-50) and NJIT (73-58) on the year. Sophomore guard Alex Ross is Lehigh's leading scorer at 10.1 points per game. Ross is the team's top-threat from behind the three-point arc, knocking down 20-of-61 (.328) on the season. The Mountain Hawks returned three starters and 11 letterwinners off last season's 11-19 club and were picked to finish fifth in this year's Patriot League Preseason Poll.
Last Meeting with Lehigh... Lehigh shot just 26.7% (16-60) from the field but hit six-of-13 (.462) from behind the arc and 27-of-34 (.794) from the free throw line to come away with a 65-50 win over Sacred Heart on November 20, 2001 in Fairfield. Four Mountain Hawk starters found double figures led by Carli Toliver who had 18 points. Anne Tierney finished with a double double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Cat Nicholson finished with 13 points and Jana Ransom tallied 10 points in the win. Leslie Newhard led the Pioneers with 14 points while Kate Maher came off the bench to score 10 points with nine rebounds. The Pioneers shot just 25.4% (17-67) in the loss.
News and Notes...
- The Pioneers won their lone game last week, a 71-40 win at Central Connecticut on Monday night. The win was SHU's 13th-straight over the Blue Devils and improved the Pioneers to 2-0 in the NEC for the third-straight season.
- The 71 points was a season-high for the Pioneer offense, which also shot a season-best 51.9% (27-52) from the field. SHU also had a season-high 21 assists in the win. The Pioneers came up with 16 steals defensively, a season-high and forced 28 CCSU turnovers.
- Junior center Kaitlin Sowinski found double-figures for the ninth-straight game, a career-high, with 12 points. She also added eight boards, three blocks and a steal to her totals. She has had at least three blocks or more in seven-straight games and has had five or more blocks in three games this year.
- Junior Stephanie Ryan continues to improve each game and led the Pioneers with 15 points last Monday night. She also pulled down seven rebounds and made three steals, adding to her team leading totals in both categories.
- Junior Liz Gruber came off the bench and scored a season-high eight points and dished five assists, tying her career-high mark.
- Senior Lisa Moray is still marred in a three-game shooting slump despite hitting one-of-three from behind the arc at CCSU. Moray is 3-for-26 from behind the arc in her last three games.
- Freshman Maggie Cosgrove has cemented herself in the starting point guard role and continues to pump out solid performances. She is leading the team from behind the arc at 36.8%, hitting 14-of-38. Every field goal she has made this year has been from behind the arc, same as her teammate Lisa Moray.
- Freshman Alisa Apo has settled into the sixth-man-role, scoring double digits in the last two games off the bench. Apo played 18 minutes at Central Connecticut and hit five-of-eight from the field, including a three, and three-of-four at the line for a season-high 14 points. Apo has provided some instant offense off the bench averaging 6.7 points per game, shooting 33.3% (5-15) from three and 75.0% (15-20) from the free throw line.
- The Pioneers start three guards on offense, Khalia Cain, Maggie Cosgrove and Lisa Moray, and all three have a positive assist-to-turnover ratio. Moray leads the team at 23 assists against 11 turnovers. Cain has 27 helpers against just 16 turnovers and Cosgrove has 20 assists and 18 miscues.
