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SFU women enter playoffs at No. 3

LORETTO — Saint Francis was looking to get the monkey off its back.

The Red Flash had lost six straight games to Sacred Heart since winning a two-overtime thriller in the Northeast Conference quarterfinals during the 2013-14 season.

SFU had come close from time to time, but it could never quite get over the hump.

On Monday night at DeGol Arena, the Flash put together a performance to build off of heading into tournament action as they used their pressuring defense and their always potentially deadly offense in picking up an 83-69 victory over the Pioneers.

“We’re getting better defensively in that zone. We did a much better job,” Saint Francis coach Joe Haigh said. “Offensively, shooting 50 percent, that’s one of our best shooting percentages of the entire year.”

Saint Francis and Sacred Heart closed the books on the regular season by finishing in a second-place tie in conference play with 13-5 marks, while also ending with identical overall records of 16-13. The 13 wins in NEC play are the most for the Flash since going 14-4 in the 2010-11 campaign.

SHU, by virtue of a tiebreaker, receives the second seed for Sunday’s quarterfinal round and will host Saint Francis Brooklyn, while SFU is third and will entertain Central Connecticut State. Both game times have yet to be announced.

“Well, we were down two starters today, so, that’s hard,” Sacred Heart coach Jessica Mannetti said. “To be able to find great chemistry on the floor and ask for subs that really haven’t played a lot of minutes all year to step up big and be able to execute the things we wanted to execute … We just kind of ran out of gas a little bit in our ability to execute and have great depth down the stretch that was efficient for us.

“I give a lot of credit to Saint Francis. I thought they did a really good job making us play a little fast and frantic. When you have a really short bench at the moment it hurts you. We’ll be healthy for the tournament though — don’t worry.”

Saint Francis’s zone had given Sacred Heart fits for most of the game as it only forced 16 turnovers which led to 17 points, but it made it tough for the Pioneers to get into any kind of flow offensively by being disruptive and getting into the passing lanes.

SHU quickly realized that it was going to have a tough night trying to take it all the way to the basket as SFU’s Courtney Zezza, who has been averaging an NEC-best 3.3 blocks per game, notched her second straight seven-block game.

Sacred Heart’s Katherine Haines, who has been playing exceptionally well of late with double-doubles in four of her last five games, dominated Zezza in the early going by grabbing nine rebounds in the opening quarter alone.

However, as the team defense picked up the intensity, so too did Zezza as she held the redshirt sophomore to just five more boards the final three quarters of play. Haines did finish with another double-double of 14 caroms and 13 points, but the Red Flash sophomore more than held her own with 12 rebounds.

“That was one of our focuses was to limit her because Haines has been playing really, really well,” Haigh said. “That rebounding number was a big concern in the first quarter and at halftime … Courtney, in contrast, her rebounds went up as the game went on. It’s really a great job by people down at the bottom of the zone — we did a good job.”

The Pioneers were missing their do-everything reigning conference player of the year in Hannah Kimmel, who didn’t make the road trip due to a minor foot injury, and it showed when the fourth quarter got going.

The Red Flash entered the final 10 minutes of play up just six points (60-54) but went up double digits within the first two minutes as Katie Reese, who finished with 24 points, four assists and three steals, hit a runner off the backboard as she was fouled.

Jess Kovatch also made good on a layup as she was fouled. The sophomore converted the free throw to put SFU up 65-54 at the 8:21 mark.

From there the Red Flash lead got down to single digits once at nine when SHU’s Shelby Hickey drilled her third straight 3-pointer to make the score 74-65 with 3:53 to go in the contest.

“I think our defense was more of a catalyst for their success. We did not play great defense tonight, and Saint Francis is a really offensive-minded team,” Mannetti said. “They have really talented offensive players. So, they did a good job exploiting our defensive weakness. We kept going at them, but we just fell a little short.”

But Kovatch, who capped off her NEC player of the year resume with 35 points and six steals, answered right back with her second trey of the quarter to stretch the lead back to 77-65.

“She’s (Reese) playing with a lot of confidence now. She’s really doing a nice job. This is one of her better games — not all about points — but with the decision making out there,” Haigh said. “Jess had a heck of a game also — an efficient 35 points (on 12-for-21 shooting).

SACRED HEART (16-13, 13-5): Haines 4-14 4-4 13, Hickey 7-12 0-0 19, Williams 8-16 2-2 20, Storck 2-8 0-0 4, Castro 1-6 0-0 3, Carter 2-8 2-2 7, Murphy 1-2 1-1 3, Cheatham 0-0 0-0 0, Ye 0-1 0-0 0, Silletti 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-67 9-9 69.

SAINT FRANCIS (16-13, 13-5): Harrison 3-7 2-2 8, Zezza 2-8 0-0 5, Reese 10-19 2-3 24, Wynn 2-3 2-2 6, Kovatch 12-21 5-5 35, Allison 0-0 0-0 0, Falvey 0-0 0-0 0, Bethel 2-2 1-2 5. Totals: 31-60 12-14 83.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Sacred Heart 16 16 22 15 — 69

Saint Francis 20 19 21 23 — 83

3-point field goals: Sacred Heart 10-25 (Hickey 5-9, Williams 2-5, Haines 1-1, Castro 1-4, Carter 1-4, Storck 0-1, Ye 0-1); Saint Francis 9-19 (Kovatch 6-11, Reese 2-4, Zezza 1-2, Harrison 0-1, Wynn 0-1). Rebounds: Sacred Heart 42 (Haines 14); Saint Francis 29 (Zezza 12). Assists: Sacred Heart 16 (Williams 8); Saint Francis 10 (Reese 4). Blocks: Sacred Heart 1 (Haines); Saint Francis 7 (Zezza 7). Steals: Sacred Heart 9 (Hickey, Williams 3 each); Saint Francis 13 (Kovatch 6). Turnovers: Sacred Heart 16; Saint Francis 11. Total fouls: Sacred Heart 14; Saint Francis 10. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.

Officials: Warren Harding, Fidel Gonzalez, Dara Lofton. A: 339.

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