Lady Hawks' NEC Run Halted by St. Francis

The Monmouth University women's basketball team is headed to a postseason tournament, but not the one it was hoping to enter.

The team will have to settle for a Women's National Invitation Tournament berth after losing on the road to St. Francis (PA), 72-57, in the Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament Final on Sunday.

St. Francis punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament by defeating the Hawks. The winner of the NEC Tournament gets an automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament.

SFU took an 11-8 lead early in the first half after Allison Smith hit a jumper from the corner, and the team continued its hot shooting throughout the first half by hitting 50 percent of its field goals. Monmouth trailed 36-24 at halftime, but were able to trim SFU's lead to four after guard Alysha Womack buried two 3-pointers.

However, St. Francis responded with a 14-1 run which buried the Hawks' chances of a comeback.

Womack tied for the team lead with 19 points, along with forward Abby Martin, and said it was hard for her to watch St. Francis celebrate after the game was over.

"It stings, because we worked so hard this season and we wanted the result to obviously go in our favor, and to sit there and watch someone else take what we prepared for really hurts," Womack said.

Monmouth head coach Stephanie Gaitley said she was "extremely proud of her kids," after Sunday's loss.

"Part of it is getting there and learning how to really deal with the experience," Gaitley said. "I think this will sit with them, but fortunately it won't sent for us for long because we can go and play in the WNIT....we are proud to represent the conference in the WNIT."

Monmouth's spot in the WNIT will be determined later today as the 64-team field in announced. The first round games of the WNIT will be played from March 16-March 18.