Boxscore

WALTHAM, Mass. – The No. 7 seed Goldey-Beacom College women's basketball team fell, 79-67 to No. 2 seed Holy Family in the school's first appearance in the NCAA East Regional Tournament.

"We obviously wanted to get a win here, but we can definitely leave her today with our heads held high," fourth-year head coach Jen Carleton said. "I couldn't be more proud of our girls' effort today. It is an amazing accomplishment to have even gotten here."

The Lightning, who finished the season 18-12, could not pull off a third straight victory over their Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference foe after beating the Tigers on their home floor the last two meetings, including both teams' last outing in the CACC Final. Holy Family, which came in ranked No. 18 in the country, improved to 24-9 and advanced to play No. 6 seed Pace in the semifinals on Sunday afternoon.

Redshirt-junior guard Jacinda Jones carried GBC offensively with a team-high 21 points (7-for-7 FT), seven assists and six rebounds, as she never took a seat for the entire 40 minutes. Redshirt-sophomore guard Ashley Rosario also provided a scoring punch, knocking down 7-of-13 from the field on the way to a career-high 15 points. Sophomore forward Irene Hudson was the third Lightning player in double-figures as she pitched in 12 points for the day.

After burning Holy Family for a career-high 30 points en-route to a CACC Tournament Most Valuable Player award, senior guard Janae Weldon could not find her stroke in this one as she finished with three points on 1-of-12 from the field (1-of-10 from long-range). The team's senior leader showed no quit though as she made her impact felt with four assists, three rebounds and a steal.

Holy Family's Catherine Carr, a first team All-East Region selection, finally broke through with a big game against GBC with a double-double of game-highs, 29 points (8-of-24 FG, 10-of-11 FT) and 14 rebounds. In the first three previous meetings, the Lightning held Carr to under 10 points in each game on a combined 8-of-43 shooting from the field. Lindsey Tennett (15 points, four rebounds) and Erin Mann (12 points, eight rebounds, five blocks) both had success inside, particularly when the Lightning's bigs were out with foul trouble.

Similar to the last meeting, it took until two minutes into the action before the game had its first field goal, which was a jumper by HFU's Mann. A full-court press employed by HFU head coach Mark Miller right at the start of the game, gave the Lightning fits early as the Tigers pounced for an early 6-1 lead.

The Lightning came storming back, beginning with a baseline jumper by Rosario, and took their first lead of the game, 7-6 after a layup by sophomore forward Akilah Sewell (six points, six rebounds, game-high three blocks).

Sophomore forward Irene Hudson battles for a rebound. She finished with 12 points.

Twice the Lightning cut the lead to five, including at the 7:17 mark when Hudson converted an and-one three-point play to make it 25-20. But the Tigers answered with an 11-1 charge to take their largest lead of the half, 36-21.

Jones scored GBC's final eight points of the half, including two consecutive three-point shots to end the scoring as GBC closed the gap to nine, 39-28 at intermission.

Holy Family scored 14 of the first 21 points in the second half to take its largest lead of the game, 53-35, but still the Lightning refused to go down easily.

Jones and Rosario scored nine points apiece in the second half to keep things interesting as Weldon's first made field goal of the game (and the last of her GBC career) was a three-pointer at a pivotal moment because it brought the Lightning within six, 64-58 with 5:08 left to play.

That would be as close as upset-minded Lightning would get though as Tennett and Carr scored from inside and out and then Carr sealed the victory with 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line in the final 1:30 of regulation.

HFU shot slightly better from the field (38-percent to 36-percent), and much better from three-point range (36-percent to 14-percent) and the free-throw line (83-percent to 61-percent). The Tigers also held a 52-42 rebounding advantage and had more assists (20-16) while both teams turned it over 16 times.

The Lightning outscored HFU 36-30 in the paint, but it was HFU who scored 16 points off of GBC turnovers and 20 second-chance points courtesy of 19 offensive rebounds.

In the post-game press conference, Jones said she was very proud of the way her team played throughout the entire season.

"I'll be the first person to say that we were inconsistent at times," Jones laughed. "But we all stuck together through even the tough times, and for us to buckle down and go on a run in the CACC Tournament when we needed it most…and to get here, is pretty special."

Weldon, a four-year starter for Carleton, said being a part of this program at Goldey-Beacom College has helped her to grow not just as a player, but as a person.

"When I came in as a freshman and had to play right away because someone else had an injury, it was tough," Weldon said. "Every year, things got a little bit better, and this year was definitely my favorite because this team was so much like a family."

Senior forward Arielle Alford, who registered four points, six rebounds and two blocks in 36 minutes of work, said that she is proud that her class has helped to change the climate at GBC.

"When I first got here, there was never any talk of conference championships," Alford said. "It was, you can come play here and we can try to compete. We came into this year actually knowing we had a good team, and now we're here [at the NCAA Tournament]. We've arrived."

Carleton lauded the contributions her four seniors (Megan Knowles, Amber Gullickson, Weldon and Alford) have made to the program over her four years at GBC.

"When people look back in 15 years, they'll be saying how this class of incredible girls got it started here at this school. We hope to continue our success that we've had, largely because of our seniors."