St. Francis women fall to Delaware

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November 17, 2009

By HUGH CONRAD The Tribune-Democrat Tue Nov 17, 2009, 11:27 PM EST

LORETTO — The belle of the ball who spurned Geno Auriemma did not steal the game from the St. Francis women’s basketball team Tuesday night.

Quite simply, the Red Flash women beat themselves.

Delaware freshman Elena Delle Donne attracted the national media to the Stokes Center, but her performance was somewhat unimpressive despite the high expectations.

The Red Flash women, who hope to improve this season and return to the Northeast Conference championship game and to win it this time, were equally unimpressive.

In a game that featured 42 turnovers, 22 by St. Francis, the fans were not treated to a marquee performance by either team in Delaware’s 77-64 victory.

Coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl admitted that her squad should win games like this after raising expectations last season. The Red Flash were within three points twice in the second half, but the Blue Hens pulled away from them both times.

Coming close is not what St. Francis hopes for this season.

“We’re past that point. We’ve gotten a lot better in the last two years, so our kids know that expectations are heightened for this program,” Fruchtl said.

“We had opportunities (Tuesday night), and we let them get away in that run in the second half.”

Part of St. Francis’ problem started with players in early foul trouble. Senior point guard Brittany Hodges played just five minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls. Her replacement, freshman Nickia Gibbs, was tagged with two in just a minute.

Hodges played 20 minutes, well under her 33-minute per game average last year. As a result, St. Francis’ transition game was non-existent.

“When (she got into) foul trouble, I made a decision to sit her the remainder of the half,” Fruchtl said. “We were doing OK.”

Delaware led 36-31 at halftime.

St. Francis was able to defend 6-foot, 5-inch freshman center Delle Donne rather well. Delle Donne, a McDonald’s All-American and the top women’s recruit in the country two years ago, had enrolled at Connecticut, but left shortly after arriving and did not take any classes or play for the Lady Huskies.

A native of Wilmington, Del., she enrolled at Delaware, a program that was 7-24 two years ago and 15-15 last year while competing in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Coach Tina Martin realizes that the expectations for her team are high this season. Those expectations were not realized in the Blue Hens opener, possibly because of the national media distraction.

“I thought that it was a really good win for us. At times, we played sloppy,” Martin said. “Overall, on the road, a lot of things going on with this game, obviously, with Elena making her debut with a lot of interest. Our team handled it well.”

Delle Donne scored 19 points but shot just 36 percent (5-of-14) from the field and pulled down just seven rebounds.

St. Francis narrowed the Delaware lead to 45-42 when Kelsey Caruthers hit a field goal with 12:41 left in the game.

Then the Blue Hens put together a 10-0 run from which the Red Flash never recovered.

St. Francis was outrebounded 35-26, with no post player having more than four rebounds.

Delle Donne’s 19 led Delaware, while Samantha Leach had 16 and Allison Daly 11 for the Red Flash.

St. Francis visits Lehigh on Friday.

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