BOX SCORE

Waltham, Mass. -  The Holy Family University women's basketball team came up short in the NCAA Division II East Regional Semifinals as Pace University defeated the Tigers, 89-72, at the Dana Center on the campus of Bentley University Sunday afternoon.

Second seeded Holy Family, ranked 18th in the recent USA Today/ESPN NCAA Division II National Top-25 Coaches' Poll, concludes the season with a 24-5 record.  The Tigers earned their eighth straight appearance to the NCAA Division II Tournament and advanced to the regional semifinals for the sixth consecutive season.

Pace, seeded sixth, improves to 24-8 overall and will advance to the East Region Championship game against top-seeded Bentley University Tuesday night.

Sophomore Erin Mann (West Chester, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) led the Holy Family offense with a team-high 22 points after shooting 10-of-15 from the field.  Mann also grabbed eight rebounds and had four blocked shots.  Senior Catherine Carr (Bernardsville, N.J./Bernards), the team's all-time leading scorer, scored 20 points to go along with nine rebounds and five assists.  Carr finishes her four-year career with 1,995 career points.

Senior Meghan Gibson (Philadelphia, Pa./Archbishop Ryan) finished with 15 points, while graduate student Samantha Thompson (Southampton, Pa./St. Basils) tallied 11 points for the Tigers.  

For Pace, senior Brittany Huggins scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Setters' offense.  Sophomore Brittany Shields finished with 20 points after shooting 6-of-12 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free throw line.  Shields also grabbed seven rebounds.  Junior Maral Javadifar also scored in double-figures with 13 points, while fellow classmate Carol Johnson contributed 11 points, seven rebounds and eight assists off the bench.

Holy jumped out to a quick lead as the Tigers put together a 13-5 run during the first six-plus minutes of action.  However, Pace responded with a run it its own scoring ten straight points to take the lead (15-13) after Johnson converted a pair of free throws with 12:29 left in the half.

The Setters continued to roll and stretched their 10-0 run into a 21-4 rally to take control of the game with a nine points advantage (26-17) with less than nine minutes to play in the first stanza.  Later in the half, Pace increased its lead to as many as 16 points after Allison Cleary drained a three-pointer to make the score 44-28.

Holy Family cut the Pace lead to just 12 points after Mann scored a layup with six seconds left in the half to make the score 44-32 in favor of the Setters as the teams entered the locker rooms at halftime.

In the second half, Pace maintained its double-digit lead well into the half.  However, Holy Family began cutting into the Setters' lead and came within seven points after Mann scored another layup to make the score 54-47 with 12:35 left on the clock.  Pace quickly responded and eventually doubled its lead to 14 points after Javadifar knocked down a three-pointer at the 8:55 mark.

Holy Family managed to cut down the Pace lead to single digits again after Gibson converted a pair of free throws to make the score 76-67 with 3:01 to play.  However, it wasn't enough as Pace was able to hold off any type of rally from the Tigers.

Pace shot 52.7-percent from the field and 53.3 percent (8-15) from beyond the arc in the victory.  Holy Family shot 39.4-percent overall and was only 5-of-16 from three.  The Tigers held the advantage on the glass, outrebounding the Setters, 47-34.