Dec. 2, 2008

Sacred Heart vs. Stony Brook Game Notes in PDF Format

Sacred Heart Pioneers (0-5, 0-0 NEC) vs. Stony Brook Seawolves (0-5, 0-0 America East)

Game #6 - Wednesday, December 3, 2008 - 7:00 pm - Fairfield, Conn. - William H. Pitt Center (2,100)

Radio: SacredHeartPioneers.com Multimedia: Live Video, Gametracker

The Storyline... The Sacred Heart Pioneers will play host to the Stony Brook Seawolves Wednesday night in a match-up of 0-5 teams. The Pioneers are coming off their fifth-straight loss to start the season, 68-62, at Manhattan on Sunday as they look to end the streak heading into their Northeast Conference opener on Saturday. The last time SHU has lost five-straight was during the 2004-05 campaign. Head Coach Ed Swanson will send out this third different starting lineup on Wednesday night looking for a spark. The Seawolves are coming off a 61-49 loss to St. John's on Friday as they end a five-game road swing tonight.

Series... Sacred Heart leads the all-time series, 8-4. The Seawolves posted a 52-47 win last season at home. The two teams renew acquaintance during the 2006-07 season, the first between the two schools on the Division I level and the first since the 1998-99 season. SHU came away with a 77-65 win over the Seawolves at home in the William H. Pitt Center. The Pioneers and Seawolves met for the first time on December 15, 1990, a Stony Brook 83-69 win at home. SHU then rattled off four-straight in the series. The Pioneers are 3-0 against Stony Brook in the confines of the William H. Pitt Center, winning at home in 1997-98, 1998-99 and 2006-07.

The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU `89) is in his 19th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 297-218 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have a 171-99 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, (297) and winning percentage (.577). 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. Michele Cherry (Arizona State `92) is in her second season at the helm of the Stony Brook women's basketball program and owns a 8-28 record. Cherry took over the program from her mentor Maura McHugh after spending three seasons as the top-assistant at Stony Brook. Prior to that she joined McHugh on her staff of the Sacramento Monarchs in the WNBA.

Pioneers vs. America East... The Pioneers are 7-7 against the America East Conference since joining Division I in 1999-00. SHU is 1-1 against both Binghamton and Stony Brook after beating the Bearcats and falling to the Seawolves last year and will play both schools this season as well. SHU is 2-2 against Albany, 1-2 against Hartford, 1-1 against New Hampshire and 0-1 against Vermont. The Pioneers have faced Albany, Binghamton, Hartford and Stony Brook in their Division II days. The Pioneers were 6-2 against UMBC when the Retrievers where a member of the Northeast Conference.

Scouting the Seawolves... The Stony Brook Seawolves are 0-5 to start the year as well as they put the wraps on a five-game road trip tonight against the Pioneers. After a 59-45 loss in the season opener at home to Quinnipiac, the Seawolves have fallen on the road at Michigan State, Penn State, Princeton and St. John's. Sophomore forward Kirsten Jeter is the team's leading scorer and rebounder at 7.6 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Jeter was an America East All-Rookie team selection last season after averaging 9.3 points and 4.5 points per game. As a team, the Seawolves are averaging just 47.0 points per game while shooting 32.5% (87-268) on the season. Stony Brook was picked ninth in the America East Preseason Poll.

Last Meeting with Stony Brook... Sacred Heart center Kaitlin Sowinski scored 15 points but the Pioneers shot just 27.1% (16-of-59) from the field as a team in a 52-47 loss at Stony Brook last November. The Pioneers hit just three-of-15 from behind the arc while committing 15 turnovers in the loss. SHU was plagued in the first half by poor shooting, hitting just five-of-29 (.172) in the half with their saving grace coming on 12 trips to the free throw line where they hit eight. As poor as the SHU offense was, Stony Brook could only manage a small degree better; hitting eight-of-18, but 14 turnovers prevented the Seawolves from opening a big lead. The Pioneers endured a seven-minute, 0-9 stretch that ended with 23 second left in the half but SBU went into the locker room up five, 24-19. SHU cut the Seawolf lead to three, 26-23, with a pair of lay-ups out of the half but a Stony Brook 11-5 run over the next six minutes built the biggest lead of the night at nine, 37-28. The Pioneers put together their best spurt of the night out of the last media time-out to get back within three in the closing seconds. SHU's Lisa Moray buried a three to get the Pioneers to within 50-47 with 24 ticks left but out of the ensuing time-out, Stony Brook's Dana Ferraro broke behind the SHU defense on the inbound and streaked in for an uncontested lay-up to ice the game, 52-47. Ferraro added 12 rebounds to her 13 points for a double double while Aly Young led all scorers with 14 points and 11 boards for a matching double dip.

Last Time Out... Sacred Heart fell to 0-5 to start the 2008-09 season, falling at Manhattan, 68-62, on Sunday afternoon. The Pioneers got 19 points from sophomore Alisa Apo but shot just 28.0% (7-25) as a team in the second half en route to their fifth-straight loss to open the season. The Jaspers erased a seven-point SHU lead at the half thanks to some sharp shooting from behind the arc, hitting five-of-10 in the second half. Apo finished the first half scoring 17 of her game-high 19 points. Manhattan stormed out of the locker room and buried a trio three's off the hands of Wentworth and Annie McIntyre to jump back in front 42-40. The SHU offense went without a field goal over nearly a five minute stretch as the Jaspers pulled in front 49-44 at the 12:04 mark. Sowinski ended the drought at 11:08 and SHU whittled the lead down to one with 6:23 to go. SHU would twice more pull within a point, 59-58 with 2:52 to go but a three by Herrington pushed the lead back to five, 63-58. Back-to-back jumpers by Taylor and Apo pulled the Pioneers back to within one, 63-62, with 33 seconds left but Manhattan hit five-of-six at the free throw line and a pair of Apo three's missed their mark in the closing seconds to help seal the win. Freshman Callan Taylor added 15 points, four rebounds and four assists to Apo's 19 point effort. SHU's Sowinski finished with 16 points and seven rebounds in the loss. The Pioneers shot just 26.7% (4-15) from behind the arc and saw their 19 turnovers lead to 22 Manhattan points. Herrington scored 17 points to lead Manhattan, hitting five-of-10 from behind the arc. The Jasper bench outscored SHU 26-2 thanks to 16 from senior Kelly Regan.

Slow Start... The Pioneers are off to an 0-5 start to the 2008-09 season as they return home for three-straight hoping to end the skid. This is the first time since the winlees (0-21) 1982-83 season a Pioneer team has opened 0-5 and the first time in Head Coach Ed Swanson's 19 years. SHU SHU was also 0-5 in 1981-82 and started 0-4 in 1984-85.

Home Cooking... Sacred Heart opened this season with four of their first five games on the road including a season-opening swing through Kansas and Marquette. SHU plays their next three at home starting with Stony Brook on Wednesday night. The Pioneers will close out the 2008 calender year by playing five of seven in the friendly confines of the William H. Pitt Center.

Frosh Taylor Off to Strong Start... Freshman forward Callan Taylor is off to a stellar start to her collegiate career just five games in. Taylor is coming off her first career double double after posting 21 points and 10 rebounds coming off the bench against Lehigh last week followed by a 15 points, four rebound, four assist game against the Manhattan Jaspers. On the year, she is second on the team scoring at 12.8 points per game to go with 5.6 rebounds per outing. She leads the team and the NEC hitting 58.3% (7-12) from three. She is also the team leader and is second in the league at the charity stripe knocking down 91.3% (21-23) on the season. Taylor has started four of the five games this season, coming off the bench against Lehigh. She missed the second half of the Fairfield game with an ankle injury.

Alisa Apo Has the Hot Hand on Offense... Sophomore Alisa Apo, last season's NEC Rookie of the Year, hasn't missed a beat in 2008-09 averaging 17.2 points per game in the early going. Apo posted a career-high 31 points against Lehigh where she hit nine-of-16 from the field, four-of-six from three and nine-of-12 at the line, and came back with 19 points, 17 in the first half, against Manhattan. Apo is shooting 85.7% (30-35) at the free throw line.

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