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Women's Hoop: Norwich Edges Saint Joseph 65-64 On Late Basket

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Created on Thursday, 02 February 2012 03:50

Written by George Commo

Jessalyn Sweeney hits game winning put-back with 2.9 seconds remaining

Courtesy St. Joseph Sports Information

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Jessalyn Sweeney (Standfordville, N.Y.) had a put-back basket with 2.9 seconds remaining to erase a one-point deficit and give Norwich University a 65-64 win over Saint Joseph College Wednesday night in a GNAC game at the O'Connell Center.

The loss dropped Saint Joseph to 12-7 overall and 4-5 in GNAC play. Norwich is 9-12 overall and also 4-5 in the league.

Saint Joseph's Mary Hyde (Derby, Conn.) had given the Blue Jays a 64-63 lead with 15 seconds left when she scored on a back-door layup after a nice feed from Heather Framski (Prospect, Conn.) at the high post.

Norwich then called a timeout with 10.8 second remaining. The Cadets' Kristin Brown drove the lane, but missed a layup. However, Sweeney was there to put in the rebound for the game-winner with just under three seconds left. Out of timeouts, the Blue Jays last-second scramble for a final shot did not materialize.

Saint Joseph had 20 more field goal attempts than Norwich, but shot just 31.2 percent (24-for-77) while Norwich went 27-for-57 (47.4 percent).

Norwich led 37-26 at halftime and had its biggest lead at 39-26 after the first basket of the second half. Saint Joseph never led by more than two points and trailed for over 34 of 40 minutes.

Framski had a game-high 19 points for Saint Joseph, Devon Diliberto (Waterbury, Conn.) scored 11 and Brianna Ferraro (Waterbury, Conn.) 10 for the Blue Jays. Shauna Sullivan (Rocky Hill, Conn.) had 10 rebounds.

Sweeney shot 7-for-11 and finished 18 points and eight rebounds for Norwich and Aliah Curry (Windsor, Mass.) added  15.