Nov. 24, 2008

Sacred Heart vs. Lehigh Game Notes in PDF Format

Sacred Heart Pioneers (0-3, 0-0 NEC) vs. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (3-1, 0-0 Patriot)

Game #4 - Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 7:00 pm - Fairfield, Conn. - William H. Pitt Center (2,100)

Radio: www.SacredHeartPioneers.com Multimedia: Gametracker, Live Video

The Storyline... Sacred Heart will make its 2008-09 home court debut Tuesday night as they play host to the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. The Pioneers are still in search of their first win of the season after a heartbreaking 59-58 overtime loss on Saturday to crosstown rival Fairfield. SHU hosts a Lehigh team that come in off a pair of wins over Northeast Conference foes Saint Francis (PA), 82-62, and Fairleigh Dickinson, 90-54, both on the road as they look to make it three-straight over the NEC.

Series... Lehigh leads the all-time series, 3-2. 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 and beat the Pioneers 63-53 last season at home.

The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU `89) is in his 19th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 297-216 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 171-97 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, (297) and winning percentage (.579). 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. Sue Troyan (Dickinson `88) is in her 14th season at the head of the Lehigh women's basketball program. Troyan holds a 182-195 (.483) 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 Lehigh's head softball coach from 1991 through 1995, three times leading her teams to the Patriot League title.

SHU vs. the Patriot League... The Sacred Heart Pioneers are 8-8 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 with Colgate, 1-1. The Pioneers are 3-2 against Lehigh, 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.

Scouting the Mountain Hawks... The 2008-09 Lehigh women's basketball team comes in with a 3-1 record with wins over Penn, 83-52, Fairleigh Dickinson, 90-54, and Saint Francis (PA), 82-62, on their ledger. The Mountain Hawks lone loss came at the hands of St. Joseph's, 71-63, as the close out a four-game road swing against the Pioneers. For their efforts in the FDU and SFPA wins, sophomore guard Erica Prosser and freshman center Alexa Williams were named Patriot League Player and Rookie of the Week. Prosser leads the team averaging 16.8 points per game as Lehigh is scoring at a 79.5 points per game clip. She is shooting 55.3% (26-47) from the field and is averaging 6.0 assists per game. Junior Alex Ross comes in averaging 14.0 points per game while senior Tricia Smith leads the team in rebounding at 7.3 boards per game. As a team, Lehigh is shooting 51.7% (119-230) from the field and 40.0% (28-70) behind the arc while outrebounding opponents by a +11.5 margin on the year. The Mountain Hawks were picked to finish second in the Patriot League Preseason Poll.

Last Meeting with Lehigh... Sacred Heart's Alisa Apo scored 20 points but the Pioneers came up short on the road, losing 63-53 at Lehigh on December 19, 2007. Lehigh senior Kaela Pearce scored all 17 of her points in the second half in the win. The Mountain Hawks put together a 14-4 first half run and led 28-27 at the break. Lehigh came out on fire to start the second half, ripping off a 14-2 run over the first eight minutes to pull in front, 42-29. The Pioneers suffered a rough shooting stretch, going one-for-10, including nine-straight misses, to start the half. The Pioneers were able to chop the lead down to six, 44-38, at the eight minute mark but Lehigh had an answer, quickly bouncing the lead back to 10. Pearce did much of her damage over the final five minutes, scoring 10 of her 17 as the Mountain Hawks kept SHU at bay the rest of the way for the win. SHU shot just 33.3% (18-54) from the field in the loss and were outrebounded 41-30. In addition to Apo's 20, Kaitlin Sowinski and Stephanie Ryan both found double digits with 14 and 13 points, respectively. The Mountain Hawks shot 52.2% (12-23) in the second half and scored 22 points off 20 SHU turnovers.

Last Time Out... Fairfield's Stephanie Geehan buried her first three-point field goal of the season with one second left in overtime to lift the Stags to a 59-58 win over Sacred Heart Saturday afternoon. The Pioneers went up 58-56 with 11 seconds left in the extra session before Geehan hit from the left wing for the game winner to drop SHU to 0-3 to start the year. The Pioneers led by as many as seven points in the first half and had a six-point lead with just under four minutes to play in the second half but a 6-0 Fairfield run ended regulation sending the game to overtime. SHU twice had opportunities to expand on a two-point lead at the free throw line in the extra session but came up short on both occasions. SHU senior Kaitlin Sowinski led the Pioneers recording her first double double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds. With the game tied at 56-56 in overtime, Sacred Heart looked to Sowinski and the senior center delivered with a lay-in, drawing the foul and a chance at a three-point play with 11 ticks left. Her free throw missed the mark and the Stags raced up court with no time outs left to try and set up the last shot. Geehan came off a screen on the left wing and took a pass from Sarah Paulus, got a clean look and buried the game-winner. Senior Stephanie Ryan finished with 18 points on six-of-11 shooting while sophomore Alisa Apo came up with 11 points and four assists. The Pioneers shot just 35.5% (22-62) from the field and were out rebounded 47-37 on the glass. The Stags got 16 points from guard Desiree Pina and 14 from Baendu Lowenthal. Geehan finished with seven but hauled in a game-high 14 rebounds.

Frosh Taylor Off to a Solid Start... Freshman forward Callan Taylor cracked the starting lineup to open the season and has impressed in the early going. Taylor scored double digits in back to back games to open the year at Kansas and Marquette. She had six points and three boards, hitting two-of-three behind the arc, in 15 minutes of action against Fairfield on Saturday before leaving late in the first half with an ankle injury. On the year she is averaging 9.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, shooting 50.0% (4-8) from three and 80.0% (8-10) at the line.

Sowinski Notches First Double-Double of `08-09... Senior center Kaitlin Sowinski picked-up her first double double of the 2008-09 season in Saturday's loss at Fairfield. Sowinski finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds but shot just nine-of-20. Sowinski had nine double dips last season, tying for the team lead with teammate Stephanie Ryan. Over her four year career, Sowinski has 11 career double doubles.

Ryan Doesn't Miss a Beat... Senior Stephanie Ryan has picked right up where she left off last season and is second on the team in scoring and rebounding at 12.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. The senior forward is shooting a team-best 42.9% (12-28) from the field, 50.0% (5-10) from three and 81.8% (9-11) at the free throw line. She leads the club in minutes played at 35.3 per game.