STANDISH, Maine – Saint Joseph's College (14-3, 8-1 GNAC) toppled Rivier University (6-11, 2-8 GNAC), 77-43, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) women's basketball contest on Mike McDevitt Court at the Harold Alfond Center on Tuesday night.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

The Monks held the lead for the entire game with a 17-12 advantage after the opening 10 minutes. The hosts grabbed their first double-digit advantage after junior forward Jayne Howe (Pembroke, Mass.) made a layup to lift her team to a 23-12 cushion with 8:09 remaining in the second quarter.

The Raiders countered with a 12-6 run, cutting their deficit down to 29-24 with 51 seconds before the break, but the Monks answered with layups from sophomores Hannah Talon (Windham, Maine) and Hailey Anderson (Beverly, Mass.) to claim a nine-point lead (33-24) after two periods. Anderson's layup, which fell through the rim as time expired, was set up by a nice feed from Nina Howe (York, Maine), who pickpocketed a Rivier player and delivered a long pass for the finish.

St. Joe's looked to put the game away early in the third quarter with a 13-3 run, which was capped with a Talon layup and the hosts on top, 46-26, with 6:08 left in the penultimate frame. The Monks led by at least 16 points for the remainder of play and attained a game-high 38-point advantage after freshman Mackenzie Currie (Merrimac, Mass.) hit a pair of free throws with 1:23 left.

NOTEWORTHY:

Led by strong defensive efforts from Talon and Angelica Hurley (Groveland, Mass.), Saint Joseph's held Rivier sophomore guard Lyric Grumblatt (Manchester, N.H.) – who entered tonight's game leading NCAA DIII Women's Basketball with a 26.0 PPG scoring average – to a season-low six points on a 2-for-20 shooting performance. Her previous low – 14 points – came against Saint Joseph's in Nashua on January 6th.

STATS OF THE GAME:

Saint Joseph's shot 52.7% (29-55) from the floor while Rivier posted a season-low 22.5% (16-71) shooting performance in the setback…The Monks also held a 40-22 lead in points in the paint with a 42-30 rebounding advantage.

LEADERS – SAINT JOSEPH'S:

• Senior guard Cassandra Stapelfeld (Brookline, N.H.) led all players with 19 points and added seven rebounds and four assists
• Hurley tallied 17 points, nine rebounds, three assists, and a pair of blocked shots
• Talon came off the bench to score 15 points off a 6-for-7 shooting effort
• Anderson contributed 12 points off the bench
• Nina Howe chipped in with six rebounds, four assists, and three steals

LEADERS – RIVIER:

• Sophomore guard Anna Stenger (Weare, N.H.) paced the Raiders with 13 points and added four rebounds
• Freshman guard Jessica Carrier (Manchester, N.H.) recorded 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and a pair of steals
• Grumblatt chipped in with six points, five steals, four rebounds, two assists, and two blocked shots

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING:

With the victory, Saint Joseph's improves to 18-5 in the history of the series with Rivier University and has now defeated the Raiders in six-consecutive meetings dating back to the 2016-17 campaign.

NEXT!

Saint Joseph's will host GNAC-rival Emmanuel College on Thursday at 6:00 PM.

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