Pioneers Host Rhode Island on Saturday
12/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 19, 2008
Sacred Heart vs. Rhode Island Game Notes in PDF Format 
Sacred Heart Pioneers (4-5, 2-0 NEC) vs. Rhode Island Rams (4-5, 0-0 A-10)
Game #10 - Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 12:00 pm - Fairfield, Conn. - William H. Pitt Center (2,100)
Radio: Pioneer Radio Network (WICC 600 AM, WINE 590 AM, WPUT 1510 AM)
Multimedia: Live Video, Gametracker
The Storyline... The Sacred Heart Pioneers return home on Saturday afternoon to play host to the Rhode Island Rams. After opening the season on a five-game losing streak, Sacred Heart has won four-straight and can even their record with a win over the Rams. The Pioneers are coming off a 64-56 win at Princeton last week where senior center Kaitlin Sowinski posted 22 points and a career-high 17 rebounds to earn Choice Hotels Northeast Conference Player of the Week honors. The URI Rams have been off since December 9th when they posted a 60-53 win over Holy Cross at home.
Series... The University of Rhode Island leads the series, 2-0. The Rams won last year's meeting, 62-43, in the season opener for both teams. The first meeting between the two schools took place on December 30, 1998 as part of the Dartmouth College Citizens Bank Classic. The Rams posted a 69-66 win in the consolation game of the tournament.
The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU `89) is in his 19th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 301-218 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 175-99 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, (301) and winning percentage (.580). He has twice been named the NEC Coach of the Year and is four conference wins away from becoming the league's all-time leader in regular season win. Tom Garrick (Rhode Island `89) took over the reigns of the Rhode Island women's basketball program in 2004 on an interim basis and is entering his fifth full season on the Rams' bench. He owns a 50-96 record over his five years as a head coach. Garrick took over at his alma mater where he was a standout on the men's hoop team, helping lead the Rams to the 1998 NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
Pioneers vs. the Atlantic-10... Sacred Heart is 1-7 all-time versus the Atlantic-10 Conference. The Pioneers went 0-2 last season, falling on the road at Rhode Island and La Salle. SHU is 1-1 against Massachusetts, with their only win against the league coming at home against UMass in the 2003-04 season opener, 61-46. The Pioneers are 0-3 against La Salle, 0-2 against Rhode Island and 0-1 against Richmond.
Scouting the Rams... The Rhode Island Rams come in at 4-5, beating Holy Cross, 60-53, at home last time out to snap a three-game losing streak. The Rams lost to fellow NEC member Central Connecticut, 66-58, and beat future NEC institution Bryant, 64-57. Senior forward Sierra Cooper leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 11.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Cooper is shooting 51.8% (43-83) from the field on the year. Sophomore guard Megan Shoniker is also averaging double figures scoring at a 10.2 points per game clip. Shoniker has made a team best 10-of-27 from behind the arc. URI was picked top finish 11th in the 13 team Atlantic-10 Conference.
Last Meeting with Rhode Island... SHU center Kaitlin Sowinski scored 13 points and pulled down 11 rebounds but the Pioneers were plagued by 23 turnovers as they fell 62-43 at Rhode Island in last year's season opener. The Pioneers shot just 29.8% (17-57) in the game and made just one-of-18 from behind the three-point arc. SHU got a three from Alisa Apo on their first possession but it would be their last of the night, finishing 0-17 the rest of the way. The Rams took a seven-point lead at the half and sprinted out of the locker room to quickly make it a double digit lead on a jumper by Safi Mojidi and a lay-in by Crystal Bellinger to go up 32-22. Their lead spiked to 17, 43-26, with just under 14 to go when SHU started to put together a run. The Pioneers used a 9-2 run to get the lead down to 10 with 8:16 to go but a swooping lay-up by Bellinger at the shot clock buzzer swung the momentum on the Ram's next possession. From there, Rhode Island outscored the Pioneers 17-8 the rest of the way to the win. Mojidi led the Rams with 11 points while center Tanja Licina scored nine points with seven rebounds. The Rhode Island bench outscored the SHU bench, 27-6. Sacred Heart point guard Khalia Cain finished in double digits with 12 points to go with four boards, two assists and a steal.
Last Time Out... Sacred Heart's Kaitlin Sowinski scored 22 points and pulled down a career-best 17 rebounds as the Pioneers won their fourth-straight, 64-56, on the road at Princeton last Sunday. Sophomore Maggie Cosgrove chipped in a career numbers as well, scoring 15 points with seven rebounds in the win. Sowinski, who picked up her second double double of the season, hit seven-of-14 from the field and eight-of-11 from the free throw line on her way to a season-high 22 point night. Seven of Sowinski's career-high rebounds came on the offensive end as she also came up with six blocks on the defensive end. Cosgrove, who grabbed all seven of her rebounds in the first half, hit four-of-seven from behind the arc and also dished our four assists. Fellow sophomore Alisa Apo tallied 18 points in the win, shooting six-of-nine while corralling six rebounds. Senior Stephanie Ryan scored just a bucket but passed out a career-high eight assists and grabbed eight rebounds. The Pioneers shot 38.5% (20-52) from the field and went to the free throw line 27 times in the win, hitting 19. SHU got to the charity stripe 23 times in the second half, making 17. The Tigers shot just 28.6% (20-70) from the field.
Kaitlin Sowinski, NEC Player of the Week... Senior center Kaitlin Sowinski was named this week's Choice Hotels Northeast Conference Player of the Week Sowinski turned in her best performance of the season's first five weeks to power the Pioneers to their fourth consecutive victory, a 64-56 road win at Princeton. In Sacred Heart's lone game of the week, the 6-foot-4 center posted season highs in points (22), rebounds (17), and blocks (6). Sowinski swatted three shots in the game's final five minutes to deny the Tigers, who had already beaten Monmouth and Fairleigh Dickinson, a third victory over a NEC member. After Princeton cut a 10-point deficit to six with 5:22 remaining in regulation, Sowinski responded by scoring four points, rejecting a lay-up, grabbing one of her career-high 17 boards during a 26-second span that bumped the Pioneers' advantage back to double digits. The Sacred Heart senior shot well from both the field (7-14) and the charity stripe (8-11). Named the Choice Hotels NEC Player of the Week for the first time since earning the second of two awards last season on Jan. 28, 2008, Sowinski is the Pioneers' first Choice Hotels weekly honoree of the 2008-09 campaign.
Chance to be .500... The Pioneers lost their first five games of 2008-09, the first time in program history an Ed Swanson coached team started 0-5 and the first time since the winless 1982-83 season (0-21). Since then, the Pioneers have rattled off four-straight, including a three-game home stand where they averaged 75.7 points, winning by an average of 46.3 points over Stony Brook, Fairleigh Dickinson and Mount St. Mary's. Over the winning streak, the Pioneers are averaging 72.8 points and shooting 45.9% (106-231) from the field and outrebounding opponents by 11 per game. In back to back games over Stony Brook and Fairleigh Dickinson, all 14 Pioneers on the roster saw action as SHU posted a 36-point win over FDU and a 39-point win over Stony Brook, their largest-margin of victory since an 84-44 win over Fairleigh Dickinson at home in 2006. SHU pulled down 54 rebounds as a team against SBU, hitting the 50 rebound mark for the first times since grabbing 52 in the 2006 NEC Championship game against Quinnipiac.
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