Nov. 13, 2007

Final Stats

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - After leading by as many as 15 points in the second half, the St. Bonaventure women's basketball team withheld a late 13-2 Albany run to pick up a 64-62 win for their third straight victory on Tuesday evening on Bob Lanier Court at the Reilly Center.

With the win, the Bonnies improve to 3-0 for the seventh time in program history, while the Great Danes dropped their second straight contest to open the 2007-08 campaign.

Sophomore Dana Mitchell registered her third straight double-digit effort to start the season with 16 points, including a coast-to-coast lay in with 18 seconds remaining that proved to be the game-wining basket. Freshman Armelia Horton and junior Erica Schiefen joined Mitchell on the double digit plateau as both set career highs with 16 and 14 points, respectively.

"I think once we went up by double digits in the second half, we relaxed and let Albany back into the game," said head coach Jim Crowley. "Our poor free throw shooting and missed opportunities on the offensive end didn't help us either."

As Mitchell found a seat on the bench after picking up her fourth foul with 6:26 remaining in the contest, the Great Danes surged to six straight points ignited by a three-pointer from sophomore Britney McGee. Horton connected a jumper with 4:27 remaining to put the Bonnies up by nine, but the Great Danes scored the game's next nine points in the contest to knot the score at 59-59 on sophomore Ashley Lindsay's floater in the lane.

Horton answered back with her seventh field goal of the night when her runner in the lane rattled around the rim before falling through the net to put the Bonnies back in the lead at 61-59. A single free throw from McGee cut Albany's deficit to a single point with 32 seconds on the clock before sophomore Charity Iromuanya gave the Great Danes their first lead of the second stanza 10 seconds later following a Bonnies turnover in their own backcourt.

With the Bonnies trailing by a single point with 23 seconds remaining, Mitchell dribbled the length of the court and found a seam all the way to the opposing basket for a lay-up. Freshman Cara Gustafson added a free throw with three seconds on the clock to put her side up 64-62 before Albany failed to get off a shot in the final seconds.

Continuing their late momentum to close the opening half, the Bonnies unleashed on a 10-0 spurt just over two minutes into the second half to give the Brown and White their largest lead of the game at 48-33. However, the Great Danes retaliated with a run of their own as they scored the game's next seven points to find themselves within eight points of the Bonnies at 48-40 with 10:57 remaining.

Following a slow start out of the opening tip caused by a pesky Great Dane's pressure that forced the Brown and White into 10 first half turnovers, the Bonnies used a 14-6 run to send the home side to a 34-29 lead at intermission. With the Bonnies trailing by three points with 6:34 remaining before the break, junior Katelyn Murray ignited the Brown and White spurt with a jumper from the right corner of the court before four straight freebies at the charity stripe from Mitchell and senior Maripier Malo.

Junior Tiara Johnson had her hand in the club's next four points as she pushed the run to eight with a long jumper from the right wing before dishing out an assist to Mitchell to give the Bonnies their largest lead of the half at 30-23. Sophomore Joy Sterling silenced the Bonnies run after nearly five scoreless minutes, but Mitchell reached the double digit mark on the next possession with her ninth and tenth points of the game on a baseline jumper.

After another Sterling two-pointer cut the home team's lead to five, Schiefen nailed her third field goal in the opening 20 minutes to put her side up by seven until TanNika Thrower's lay-in with 44 seconds remaining sent the score to 34-29 in favor of the Bonnies at the half.

The Bonnies owned a commanding lead on the boards for the third time this season, outrebounding the Great Danes 38-29. Along with her career high in the point's column, Schiefen also hauled down a career best eight rebounds.

Following three games in five days, the Brown and White will remain idle until Saturday, Nov. 17 when the Bonnies return to Elmira, N.Y. for the fourth annual St. Bona Shootout in the first of two meetings against Binghamton at 4:00 p.m.