FAIRFIELD, CONN. (February 6, 2016)—Behind Hannah Kimmel's (Harpursville, N.Y.) eighth double-double of the season, the Sacred Heart women's basketball team downed St. Francis Brooklyn 63-55 Saturday afternoon in the William H. Pitt Center. The RS-junior led all players with 18 points and 12 rebounds as the Pioneers improve to an even 11-11 on the season and 9-2 in Northeast Conference play. The loss drops the defending NEC champion Terriers to 4-18 on the season and 1-10 against the league.

SHU is back in action Monday night as they host the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds at 7:00 p.m. in the William H. Pitt Center.

Noteworthy:

• Leading today's game with 18 points, Kimmel moves up the program's all-time scorers list to fourteenth place. She now needs 59 points to pass Elaine Agosti (1988-92) for thirteenth
• Kimmel tallied her eighth double-double of the season adding 12 rebounds to her scoring total, while Alissa Tarsi (Clinton, N.J.) missed her sixth of the season by just two rebounds

Turning Point:

The Pioneers owned a five point led heading into the second half of what had up until that point been a back and forth game, but the SHU offense dominated the third quarter outscoring the Terriers 23-14 to head into the game's final period up 51-37. Sacred Heart opened the third quarter with eight unanswered points for a 36-23 lead before the teams began exchanging buckets. St. Francis Brooklyn as never able to put a run together to catch the Pioneers, however.

First Quarter:

• Each team was held to just one field goal through the first four minutes of the game with the Terriers leading 3-2 until Tarsi put the Pioneers up 4-3 with a layup before the 4:53 media timeout
• The Pioneers built on their lead making the first basket coming out of the break, but Maria Palarino quickly evened the score at six
• SFBK's first nine points came on triples, as Rachel Iozzia used one with 2:33 remaining in the period for a 9-8 lead
• With less than two minutes in the quarter, Lerae Ettienne (Kensington, Md.), who tallied 14 points in the game, kicked off a seven-point SHU run working around the defender for a layup. The run, which featured five straight points from Kimmel, put the Pioneers back on top 15-9 with 17 seconds until the buzzer
• The Terriers landed the final bucket of the opening period, getting another three from Iozzia to go into the second period trailing by three, 15-12

Second Quarter:

• St. Francis Brooklyn opened the second quarter on a 9-1 hot streak reclaiming the lead 21-16 after four straight points from Olivia Levey with 4:06 remaining in the half, but the Pioneers stormed back with nine unanswered points in the opening segment of a 12-2 run. Again, it was Ettienne who got things started with a lay-in with 3:44 on the clock.
• The run, which sent the Pioneers into halftime leading 28-23, featured six points from the senior, and four from sophomore Tykera Carter (Alexandria, Va.)

Third Quarter:

• SHU opened the second half of the game with eight straight points expanding its lead to 36-23 before Levey tallied the St. Francis Brooklyn's first two points of the half from the free throw line with 6:54 left in the quarter
• The teams exchanged baskets through the next four minutes until Ettienne's and-one sparked a five-point streak for SHU, leading the Pioneers to a 49-31 lead
• Sacred Heart outscored the Terriers 23-14 in the quarter, further expanding its lead, for a 51-37 lead going into the game's final stanza

Fourth Quarter:

• The Pioneers and Terriers traded points through the first half of the quarter, but with four minutes left in regulation, SFBK began cutting into SHU's 18-point lead. Taylor Watson sparked a 10-2 hot streak for the Terriers bringing SHU's lead down to nine points, 62-53 with a minute left
• A good free throw from rookie Danielle Durjan with under a minute to go brought the lead back to double-digits