Boxscore
The Goldey-Beacom College women's basketball team on Thursday pulled off the greatest upset of the season in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference play, upsetting No. 14 Holy Family 64-51 to end the latter's NCAA Division II record 110-game regular season conference win streak and its 71-game home win streak at the Campus Center.
Tonight's win was Goldey-Beacom's first program victory over Holy Family and its first over a ranked opponent. The Lightning also became the first CACC team to knock off the Tigers since Feb. 22, 2005, when Bloomfield handed them a 70-65 loss.
"My girls executed the game plan perfectly tonight," fourth-year head coach Jen Carleton said. "They played with poise and control, and most importantly, they played with heart and passion."
Carleton, a former assistant coach at HFU, has now coached GBC to its first program wins against both Philadelphia U. and Holy Family.
Goldey-Beacom (8-7, 6-2 CACC) avenged a previous 68-48 loss to HFU at the Jones Center back on December 16 in large part due to a 15-2 second-half run that spanned 7:22 and gave the visitors a 49-37 lead with 5:49 left to play. It would seal the victory with 11-of-12 shooting at the free-throw line in the final 1:30.
The pivotal 15-2 run started with a conventional three-point play by sophomore forward Irene Hudson (game-high 19 points) and ended with a Hudson layup. Along the way, senior guard Janae Weldon buried two clutch three-point daggers after missing her first 10 shots from the field. Weldon, who has shot just 4-of-23 from the field in two meetings against HFU, scored all 10 of her points in the second half tonight when her team needed it most.
Other players playing key roles in the Lightning's stunning victory were sophomore forward Devonne Richardson (13 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists) and redshirt-junior Jacinda Jones (11 points, four rebounds).
Collectively, the Lightning played outstanding defense, holding the league's highest-scoring offense nearly 25 points below its season average of 75.6 points per-game. The Tigers' 51 points matched a season low set during a 10-point loss at Millersville on Nov. 23.
Credit GBC's perimeter defense for holding Holy Family, the best three-point shooting team in the CACC, to a miserable 5-of-26 (19.2-percent) from long-range and just 28-percent shooting from the field. The Lightning also showed tremendous discipline on the defensive end, only putting the Tigers on the line for 10 free-throws all night after they allowed HFU 24 attempts in the first meeting this season.
Although the Lightning did not shoot much better from three-point range (4-of-17), they did have a decisive 40-percent to 28-percent shooting edge from the field and made 14-of-17 from the free-throw line compared to just 8-of-10 by HFU.
Lauren Peters (16) and Samantha Thompson (10) were the only Tigers to score in double-figures as HFU's two leading scorers, Catherine Carr and Erin Mann combined for just 12 points and five turnovers on the night. Meghan Gibson, the star in the last meeting between these two schools with a game-high 24 points, shot 1-of-8 from the field and managed only three points tonight.
The Lightning controlled the action for most of the first half as they scored the game's first five points and led by as many as six on three separate occasions, including a 23-17 advantage at the 5:30 mark. Holy Family would close out the final five-and-a-half minutes on an 11-4 run though and take a 28-27 lead at the break.
Richardson got just her fourth three-point field goal of the season to go for the first points of the second half and put GBC in front, 30-28 just 20 seconds into the period.
A layup by Sewell and another layup by Richardson would complete a 7-0 Lightning run to start the second half and give the Lightning a 34-28 lead at the 16:17 mark. However, HFU would respond with a 7-0 run, capped by a Mann free-throw to give the Tigers a 35-34 lead with 13:11 left in the game.
Just past the 11-minute mark with GBC still trailing by one, Richardson gathered a defensive rebound off a Carr miss and sent a beautiful outlet pass to Hudson, who made a layup while drawing a foul, further igniting an already fired-up Lightning bench. Hudson completed the three-point play with a free-throw to put her team in front, 37-35, and that began the pivotal 15-2 Lightning surge.
"We set the bar very high for ourselves now, and we are fully prepared to work harder than ever to make sure people know that this win was earned," Carleton said.
GBC has nearly a week off before the Lightning visit crosstown rival Wilmington University for a 6 p.m. tip on Wed., Jan. 19.
