BURLINGTON, VT (December 6, 2015)—The Pioneer offense came alive for a 15-2 run in the two final minutes of the game, but it wasn't enough to overcome Vermont's lead as the Sacred Heart women's basketball team fell 53-51 Sunday at the Patrick Gymnasium. Shelby Hickey (Littleton, Colo.) led SHU for the second straight game with 11 points shooting 57.1% (4-for7) from the floor. The loss drops the Pioneers to 1-6 this season.

SHU completes its six-game road trip Wednesday when the Pioneers travel to Temple for a 7:00 p.m. game.

Inside the Box Score:

• Thanks to sharp shooting in the final minutes, the Pioneers outshot Vermont 31.3% to 29.2% making just one more field goal (20-19)
• For the second consecutive game, just two Pioneers reached double-digit scoring. In addition to Hickey's 11, Adaysha Williams (LaCrosse, Wis.) tallied 10 points
• Alissa Tarsi (Clinton, N.J.) led all players on the boards, pulling down a career-high 12 rebounds

How It Happened:

First Quarter:

• The Pioneers opened the game on a 9-3 streak, holding the Catamounts to just three points through the first five minutes
• Coming out of the 4:58 media timeout, Vermont scored five points to Sacred Heart's two evening the score at 11 on Hayley Robertson's triple with 1:48 remaining
• With the Catamounts and Pioneers trading buckets in the final minutes, Cleo Polyzou (Athens, Greece) ended the period period's scoring by grabbing an offensive rebound and laying it back in for a 15-14 SHU lead

Second Quarter:

• The Catamounts started red hot with back-to-back threes in the opening 90 seconds taking a 20-15 lead
• Tarsi put a stop to UVM's streak knocking down two shots from the foul line before Erin Storck (Commack, N.Y.) scored her first points of the game to bring SHU within one point, 20-19
• Lerae Ettienne (Kensington, Md.) brought SHU all the way back tying the score at 22 with her second free throw
• After a nearly two-minute scoring drought, Candice Wright broke the tie with a jumper right inside the key, but Williams answered with a putback once again tying the score.
• The teams continued to exchange baskets with Hannah Kimmel (Harpursville, N.Y.) giving SHU a 28-26 advantage with just 42 second remaining in the half, but Courtney Cartwright found the basket with 0.8 seconds evening the score at 28 for halftime

Third Quarter:

• The Pioneers were held scoreless for the first 3:35 of the third quarter until Williams added another second-chance basket to her line cutting into Vermont's lead, 33-30
• UVM continued to expand its lead through the period, as the Catamounts held a 38-33 lead at the end of the quarter after minimizing SHU scoring to just five points as the Pioneers shot 6.7% from the field (1-15)

Fourth Quarter:

• Kimmel opened scoring in the final period, but the SHU offense was silenced for the next two minutes as Vermont took a 10-point lead, 45-35, forcing SHU Head Coach Jessica Mannetti to call a timeout
• SHU's struggles continued until a Kimmel trey sparked a seven-point streak with just over two minutes remaining in the game cutting the Catamounts' lead to 10-points, 51-45, by the final minute
• With the Pioneer offense coming alive at the end of the game, Hickey drained a three from the top of the key to cut Vermont's lead to five points, 53-48, with 16.1 seconds on the clock
• With Mannetti drawing up a play with seconds remaining, senior Kelcey Castro (Fairlawn, N.J.) hit SHU's second straight three at the buzzer ending the game with a 15-2 Pioneer run