ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603040093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: ATLANTIC 10 WOMEN
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: CHAD WILLIS STAFF WRITER
St. Joseph's took the lead for good at 58-57 on two free throws by Amy Facer with 8:50 remaining and went on to beat Dayton 84-73 in the opening round of the women's Atlantic 10 Conference tournament at Cassell Coliseum on Friday.
Facer keyed a 16-4 second-half spurt, scoring six of her 10 second-half points.
The Hawks (16-11), the East Division's No.3 seed, was led by Megan Compain's 24 points. Kizzy Dawson scored a game-high 25 points off the bench for the Flyers (9-18).
Dayton, the West Division's No.6 seed, hit 55 percent (29-of-53) of its shots, including 60 percent (15-of-25) in the second half. St.Joseph's countered by hitting 17 more free throws than its opponent, knocking down 25-of-28 (89 percent) from the line.
St.Joseph's faces West No.2 La Salle in the quarterfinals today at 2:30 p.m.
In other tournament games:
West No.5 Xavier 84 , East No.4 St.Bonaventure 71: Amy Siefring scored 17 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out eight assists in the Musketeers' win over the Bonnies.
Xavier (15-12) fell behind St.Bonaventure (12-15) 8-2 at the 17:32 mark of the first half.
Following a timeout, Xavier responded with a 30-8 run during the next 12 minutes, giving the Musketeers their largest lead of the half at 32-16.
St.Bonaventure rallied behind the play of Lisa Vizzoca in the second half. Vizzoca scored 13 of her team-high 17 points after halftime, trimming the Xavier lead to 68-59 with 6:01 to play.
The Musketeers held off the Bonnie rally at the foul line, converting on 11-of-12 attempts in the final six minutes.
Shelia Flint hit for a career-high 18 points for Xavier, who will face West division champion George Washington today at noon.
East No.5 Temple 64, West No.4 Duquesne 59: Shememe Williams scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds off the bench to lead the Owls (7-20) over the Dukes (13-14).
Temple shot 44 percent from the field compared to 36 percent by Duquesne. The Dukes also struggled from 3-point land, hitting just 5-of-21 shots.
Korie Hlede, the Atlantic 10 player of the year, scored 17 points to pace Duquesne.
The Owls will play Rhode Island, the East's No.1 seed, today at 6 p.m.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines KEYWORDS: BASKETBALLby CNB