St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
6-3
Louisiana-Monroe
8-2
Women's Basketball Advances To Championship Game
12/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 17, 2007
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Only leading by four points at the break, the St. John's women's basketball team turned it on in the second half, opening up with a 13-0 run to cruise past Louisiana Monroe, 69-53, in the opening game of the UAB Blazer Invitational.
With the win, the Red Storm improves its record to 8-2 and will play UAB on Tuesday at 6 p.m. for the tournament title.
It was all about the seniors in the game today, as Kia Wright and Tiina Sten led the way in scoring while continuing to move up the career record books at St. John's. Wright scored a season-high 19 points - 12 were in the second half - on 5-for-13 shooting and a perfect 8-for-8 effort at the charity stripe. She hit the 400-career assist mark with four in the contest and moved into fourth place in the St. John's record books. Sten rounded out the double-figure scoring for the team with 14 points on near perfect shooting, going 6-for-7. The story of the day for her was the three blocks she posted, moving her into eighth place in the St. John's record books with 72.
With the game close throughout the first frame, St. John's came out of the lockerroom firing and took a 47-30 lead in the final half, scoring 13 unanswered points. Wright helped get things going, scoring six of her 12 second-half points during that stretch. The Red Storm defense pressured the Warhawks and caused the team to go on a scoring drought for close to 10 minutes. At the 10:45 mark, Shannon Lloyd ended the scoreless span by converting a free throw.
Despite Louisiana Monroe getting a little offensive surge, it couldn't matchup with the power of the Red Storm. The team eventually took its largest lead of the day when Recee Mitchell hit a layup to put the team up by 20 at the 8:20 mark. St. John's concluded the game shooting 38.7 while ULM (6-3) had a scoring average of 31.0.
Both teams' offenses went in spurts in the first half and the game was close, as it featured eight tie scores and three lead changes. With St. John's down by two, the team went ahead thanks to a Sky Lindsay 3-pointer at the 16:55 mark, 9-8. The team stayed in front for over nine minutes and even had a two five-point leads.
At the 5:46 mark Louisiana Monroe knotted the score on a jumper by Ashley Wallis, 20-20. The game went back and forth until Wright gave St. John's the lead for the remainder of the stanza when she hit a layup at the 2:12 mark. The Red Storm eventually went up by six when Lindsay hit a free throw with 1:16 remaining, but Wallis closed the deficit to four at the half, 34-30. Both teams matched up evenly in the half, as ULM was 12-of-32 for 37.5 percent and St. John's was 13-of-33 for 39.4 percent.
