FAIRFIELD, CONN (December 8, 2016)—The Sacred Heart women's basketball team dropped Thursday's night's contest 63-54 to the Monmouth University Hawks in the William H. Pitt Center. With the loss, SHU falls to 2-6 on the season.

Hannah Kimmel (Harpursville, N.Y.) led the way for the Pioneers with her second 20-point game of the season shooting .571 (8-14) from the floor and .444 (4-9) from beyond the arc.

SHU returns home Monday night to host Siena at 7:00 p.m. in the final non-conference home game of the season.

Noteworthy:

• Shelby Hickey (Littleton, Colo.) tallied a season high 11 points
• Kiana Ye (Williamstown, N.J.) posted a career high seven points landing two triples and a free throw
• Kimmel posted her second 20-point game of the season shooting .571 (8-14) from the floor and .444 (4-9) from downtown

How It Happened:

First Quarter:

• The Hawks got out to an early lead taking the first six points of the game through four and a half minutes before Hickey drained a three to put the Pioneers on the board
• Monmouth answered with a jumper, but Kimmel answered with a triple to bring SHU within two points, 8-6
• The Pioneers were held to just three field goals in the first period and trailed 17-8 by the buzzer

Second Quarter:

• The teams exchanged buckets through the first half of the second period with Monmouth maintaining its lead
• With 4:50 on the clock, the Hawks began an eight-point spurt that lead to SHU Head Coach Jessica Mannetti using a timeout
• The Hawks scored once more before a pair of free throws by Kelcey Castro (Fair Lawn, N.J.) sparked a eight-point streak for the Pioneers that cut Monmouth's lead back to 10, 30-20
• Monmouth hit the last shot before the horn sending SHU into halftime down 33-20

Third Quarter:

• The teams traded brief runs with the Pioneers outscoring Monmouth 6-3 through the first three minutes before the Hawks took over with a 14-4 streak expanding their lead to 20 points, 50-30
• SHU brought Monmouth's lead down to 16 points, 51-37, by the end of the period

Fourth Quarter:

• Back-to-back triples from Kimmel and Ye to start the fourth quarter set Sacred Heart off on a 8-3 streak that brought the Hawks' lead to 11 points, 56-45, with just over seven minutes left to play
• Monmouth's Tyese Purvis attempted to stop the threatening Pioneers with a pair from the charity stripe, but Kimmel drained her third triple of the night to put SHU back on track
• Her fourth trey of the night minimized Monmouth's lead to single digits, 58-51, at the 4:20 mark, but the Hawks answered with a three-pointer of their own to push the gap back to 10 points
• Monmouth halted the thriving SHU offense with seven straight points in the final minutes putting the game out of reach for the Pioneers