Saint Joseph's Women's Basketball Team Garners National Acknowledgement

PHILADELPHIA – Coming off its monumental upset of #5 Maryland on Saturday, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team has garnered weekly recognition by national media outlets, while redshirt senior Chatilla van Grinsven (Helmond, Netherlands/Dr. Knippenberg) earned individual accolades for her performance.

As a team, the Hawks were named "Team of the Weekend" by ESPN's Graham Hays and were selected Pickin' Splinters' "Performance of the Week." Pouring in a game-high 18 points in Saturday's win over the Terps, van Grinsven earned A-10 Co-Player of the Week honors and was named College Sports Madness A-10 Player of the Week.

Posting a thrilling last-second victory at Drexel on Wednesday, the Hawks followed that with their first win over a ranked opponent since downing #15 Auburn, 71-69, in the title game of the Hawks Classic on December 29, 2007. Trailing by as many as nine points in the second half to Maryland, Saint Joseph's used a 12-2 run to take a 50-49 edge and held the Terps without a point over the final seven minutes of the game for the victory. Saturday's win over the #5 Maryland marked the highest ranked team SJU, women or men, has ever beat at Hawk Hill, and is the highest ranked team the Hawks have beat since they topped #3 Montclair State, 68-67, on March 11, 1977, in the AIAW Tournament.

Playing her first season with the Hawks, van Grinsven scored a game-high 18 points and added a team-best eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals in SJU's win over Maryland. Scoring 12 of her points in the second half, she helped spearhead the SJU defense that limited the Terps to just 14 second-half points. Earlier in the week, van Grinsven helped guide the Hawks to a last-second win at Drexel as the Helmond, Netherlands native, tallied 12 points to go with eight rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. On the week, she averaged 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 2.0 assists per game to lead SJU to a 2-0 mark. van Grinsven shares the weekly conference award with Dayton's Andrea Hoover.

The Hawks return to action Tuesday when they host Syracuse at 5 p.m.