St. Francis women get reprieve on scoring correction, beat Stonehill in OT

Feb. 3—LORETTO — The St. Francis women's basketball team can even its Northeast Conference record at 5-5 if it can beat visiting Merrimack at home on Saturday afternoon.

Filippa Goula hit the game-winning shot for the second straight game on Thursday night at DeGol Arena, but give athletics communications graduate assistants Emma White and Gabby Yanniello a big assist in the Red Flash's improbable 71-70 victory over visiting Stonehill.

White and Yanniello alerted assistant director Brian Minutolo of a fourth-quarter scoring discrepancy that put St. Francis two points closer in the final minute of regulation.

Down just two instead of four, the Red Flash were able to tie it on Destini Ward's driving layup and extend the game. There, Goula curled in for a running hook to put St. Francis up for good and then added a free throw for an important insurance tally.

Stonehill's Sham Hayward missed a free throw with six seconds left that could have tied it and the rebound was volleyed around but the Skyhawks (6-16, 2-7 NEC) weren't able to get a good shot up to try to win the game.

After the scoring error was caught, Stonehill had two shots to win it in regulation but missed both.

The Red Flash improved to 5-16 overall.

"They told me and they were telling the other coach (about the score correction) and I was like 'OK, we'll take it.' That was a little bit of a sigh of relief for us because we were only down two and not four and we didn't have to rush," St. Francis coach Keila Whittington said.

"We're just really happy and excited."

Playing big at the end and also coming up with a key offensive rebound of a missed free throw in overtime, Goula wound up with 12 points.

Junior Aaliyah Moore notched her fourth double-double of the year with 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Red Flash freshman Semaya Turner registered career-highs of 18 points and seven rebounds before fouling out with 57.4 seconds to go.

Apparently, a miscommunication resulted in the Skyhawks getting credited with a field goal in place of a rebound late in regulation. White and Yanniello noticed it, and, after a few minutes of checking the tape at the scorer's table, the officials conferred and corrected the scored with 56.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Moore said she thought the score was off after Goula's 3-pointer with a little more than four minutes left should have pulled the Red Flash to within 3. However, the scoreboard had them down five and, a minute later, they were trailing by eight.

"I thought we were down this many and then I was like 'maybe I forgot.' The game goes so fast. I was like 'keep playing,' " Moore said. "Today was a great example of us coming out, fixing the small things and showing what fixing the small things results in."

A veteran of national ball from her home country of Greece, Goula scored 10 points in the last 11 minutes.

"It's experience," Goula said of the reason she's been able to keep her cool down the stretch in close games. "When the coaches say what we need to do to get the win, it makes me more calm and listen to what they're saying so we can achieve our goal."

A 5-foot-11 swing player from northern New Jersey, Turner scored 10 points in the third quarter as St. Francis came from seven points down to take a 48-47 lead.

At 4:28 of the third quarter, Turner made a deep 3 to give St. Francis its first lead since early in the game. She followed that up by rebounding Sam Miller's missed jump and putting it in to establish a new career high with her 13th point less than a minute later.

All three of Turner's double- figure showings have come over the Red Flash's past seven games.

"I try to bring energy and a defensive presence," Turner said. "My offense comes from my defense."

Layla Laws started in place of Miller, who only entered the game with 2:50 left in the first half. Miller finished with five points, four rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes. Whittington said Miller was injured and wasn't sure if she would be able to play at all.

Stonehill took a 32-26 lead into the half, getting points from eight different players.

St. Francis trailed 19-14 after one quarter, scoring just seven points after grabbing a 7-4 lead less than two minutes into the period. After that, the Skyhawks made three 3-pointers and finished the stanza with a Sophie Glidden putback.