FAIRFIELD, Conn. – The Sacred Heart University women's basketball team welcomes Stonehill on Thursday for its penultimate home game of the 2023-24 regualr season. 

LIVE STATS | LIVE STREAM | GAME NOTES

OPENING TIP

• The Pioneers will meet the Skyhawks for the 22nd time on Thursday, with Stonehill holding a 17-4 lead in the all-time series. 
• The series between Sacred Heart and Stonehill has only featured three games with both teams playing in Division I, with the Pioneers winning all three of those contests. 
• The Pioneers have won nine straight games heading into Thursday, the team's longest streak since winning 11 consecutive in the 2015-16 season. 
• Sacred Heart improved to 12-1 in the NEC with the win over CCSU on Saturday. SHU remains one game ahead of second-place Le Moyne in the league standings with one extra game to play. 
• Ny'Ceara Pryor again led the way for the Pioneers with 26 points on 10-for-17 shooting from the floor. She also added five rebounds, two assists and a steal to her stat line. 
• Olivia Tucker also crossed double-figures with 11 points while handing out a game-high four assists. 
• SHU also had a balanced scoring effort, with five players scoring six or more points. Sajada Bonner led the group with nine points after hitting three shots behind the arc.

SCORING 20s
Pryor heads into Thursday's contest riding a four-game streak of scoring 20+ points, the longest streak of her young career. She is averaging 24.0 points per game over the run, tying her career high of 27 against CCSU on Feb. 9. After this surge in scoring, Pryor is up to a league-leading 18.4 points per game on the season, which ranks 46th in the country. 

WINNING THE TURNOVER BATTLE
One of the Pioneers' best attributes this year has been their ability to take care of the rock. Sacred Heart is 19th in the country in turnover margin, causing 5.04 more turnovers than it is committing. SHU is committing 13.5 turnovers per game, which ranks 46th in the country while forcing 18.6. Leading the charge is Pryor, as she ranks fourth nationally in steals (89) and fifth in steals per game (3.3). She also ranks 43rd in the country in assists-to-turnover ratio (2.14), 58th in assists (126) and 60th in assists per game (4.7). Amelia Wood has also been critical to this effort, as she is third in the NEC with 1.8 steals per game.

SCOUTING The SKYHAWKS
The Skyhawks head into Thursday's game in sixth in the NEC standings at 4-9. Stonehill is 4-22 overall, winning just one game away from Easton, Mass. Lauren Sampson leads the team at 13.1 points per game. Jada Thornton has been the team's next best scorer, averaging 11.0 points per game. Thornton led all scorers with 18 points in the Skyhawks' 66-56 road win over Saint Francis on Saturday. Maureen Stapleton has been another key contributor to Stonehill, leading the team and ranking second in the NEC with 7.8 rebounds per game. She is also second on the team with 2.3 assists.

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. STONEHILL 
The all-time series against the Skyhawks has been short, with Stonehill holding a 17-4 lead over 21 meetings. However, most of the series came before the Pioneers joined the Division I ranks, with the last two being the only one with both teams under the D1 banner. SHU beat the Skyhawks both times last season, and the first matchup this year.