By HUGH CONRAD
LORETTO — Janie Killian remembers her freshman and sophomore basketball seasons.
After expecting to compete for a Northeast Conference championship as a freshman at St. Francis, Killian’s team compiled a 7-22 record in her freshman season under previous coach Jill Poe. The next year the squad finished with a 6-23 record under coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl.
At that stage, an automatic berth to the NCAA women’s tournament seemed like a pipe dream.
That dream could become reality with a victory today over Long Island University in the NEC championship game in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“(Former Red Flash teammate) Emily Bollinger talked to us a lot about the NCAA tournament and how the feeling is to get that ring,” Killian, a
6-foot, 4-inch center said last week.
“That’s been our dream, getting the ring. We have a chance to do it (today), so we are really excited.”
The Blackbirds (22-9), the No. 2 seed in the NEC tournament, advanced to the title game with wins over Quinnipiac and Central Connecticut in games that were played at the Stokes Center.
St. Francis (16-14) was the No. 5 seed but upset top-seeded Robert Morris
80-79 last Sunday to advance to the title game for the second consecutive season.
This game is different from last year’s title tilt against Sacred Heart, a 74-66 loss, in one major area: Sacred Heart had dominated the league and had defeated the Red Flash twice during the season.
This year, the Red Flash earned two victories over the Blackbirds in January, winning 91-80 in Brooklyn and
82-69 at the Stokes Center.
However, both teams are on a roll.
Long Island has won 10 consecutive games, while the Red Flash have won seven straight.
“We are playing well. We definitely are playing our best basketball of the season right now,” Fruchtl said. “We have multiple threats from Brittany Hodges to Allison Smith coming off the bench. We obviously bring a lot of scoring. There are a lot of mismatches that we create with our multiple threats.
“Four or five players can score in double figures, so that is a benefit to us.”
The Red Flash averaged 86.5 points against the Blackbirds this year and lead the NEC in scoring average (68.7), although the Blackbirds are right behind them (68.1).
However, Fruchtl will probably have to rely on her hot-shooting duo that established new records in last week’s upset of Robert Morris: Hodges and Allison Daly. Hodges, a first team all-NEC selection who leads the league in scoring with 528 points (17.6 per game), hit the winning 3-pointer to defeat Robert Morris. In the game against the Blackbirds in Loretto, Hodges scored 26 points, hitting 6-of-7 3-pointers, while Daly (11.9 ppg) scored 25, hitting 6-of-10 from beyond the arc.
Daly scored 22 in Brooklyn, hitting 6-of-11 in 3-pointers.
The Red Flash set an NEC tournament record last week against Robert Morris with 14 3-pointers. Daly broke the NEC single-game record with her eight 3’s.
Despite winning two regular-season games, Fruchtl said that for her team to win, they would have to contain 5-10 sophomore forward Ashley Palmer, who averaged 15.5 points and
7.5 rebounds en route to a spot on the all-NEC team. In addition, 6-foot junior Chelsi Johnson (14.3 ppg and 7.1 rpg) is a dominant force for the quick, athletic Blackbirds.
The game will start at 3 p.m. at the Wellness Center on Long Island’s Brooklyn campus.
It will be televised on ESPNU and will be broadcast locally and on the St. Francis Web site by The Edge 1400 AM.
NEC title game
Who: No. 5 St. Francis (16-14) vs. No. 2 Long Island (22-9).
When: 3 p.m. today.
Where: Brooklyn, N.Y.
TV: ESPNU.
The Web: www.goredflash.com.
