Dec. 23, 2007
Final Stats
FORT WAYNE, Ind. -
A collective 48 points from sophomore Dana Mitchell and junior Katelyn Murray sent the St. Bonaventure women's basketball team to a 76-65 victory over IPFW on Sunday afternoon at the Hilliard Gates Sports Center.
The Brown and White's fifth win in a row pushed the Bonnies record to 10-2 on the season and established the program's best start in school history with 10 out of 12 victories. The 1992-93 Bonnies club held the previous mark with a 9-3 beginning 15 years ago. The Mastodons dropped their fourth straight game to fall to 4-7 in 2007-08.
With this afternoon's win, St. Bonaventure picked up its sixth true road triumph and seventh win away from Bob Lanier Court at the Reilly Center this season.
Mitchell posted a season and game-high 27 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field as well as a personal-best 11 tallies from the free throw line. Murray surpassed 20 points for the second time in three games with 21 tallies thanks to a 4-of-6 performance from behind the arc. Sophomore Andrea Doneth registered her third double figure scoring effort of the year with 13 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. After missing one-game due to injury, junior Tiara Johnson filled out the books with five points, seven rebounds and six assists.
The Bonnies' 76 tallies equaled the club's second highest point total of the season, while it was a 33-point improvement from the Brown and White's most recent offensive output in their 43-41 win at Fairleigh Dickinson. Included in the Brown and White's 76 points were a season-high 29 points from the line.
Following intermission, the Bonnies exploded on a 17-4 run to open the second stanza sparked by the hot shooting of Murray. The crafty junior ignited the spurt with a jumper from the right wing prior to her third triple of the game to extend her club's lead to 44-35. Mitchell converted two shots at the stripe to put the Bonnies up by double digits for the first time on the next possession at 11 points.
The St. Bonaventure offensive outburst continued the next two times down the floor as Murray and junior Erica Schiefen connected on back-to-back three-pointers to push the Bona advantage to 17 points at 52-35 4:47 minutes into the final half. Murray's fourth trey of the contest didn't come easy as she buried the triple with a hand her face well behind the arc.
Doneth capped the second session spurt with her second three-point play of the game on a slashing finish at the goal to give the Brown and White their largest lead of the game at 55-37 with 13:45 left in the contest.
In the next 4:56 span, St. Bonaventure's lead hovered above the double digit mark until IPFW tallied seven of the game's next eight points to pull within eight at 61-53 with 4:13 before the final buzzer.
St. Bonaventure responded with a 7-3 spurt, including five points from the stripe. The Bonnies connected on 8-of-12 free throws in the final 2:05 to clinch the 10th win of the season as the Mastodons never came closer than nine points down the stretch.
Thanks to a combined 27 first half points from Mitchell and Murray, St. Bonaventure entered the locker room with a 39-33 advantage following the opening 20 minutes of play. The Pennsylvania products paced the Brown and White offensive attack as Mitchell tallied 16 points to go with Murray's 11.
In the opening 3:43 of play, Mitchell wasted little time in lighting up the scoreboard with the Bonnies' first eight points to begin the contest. The second year forward started the scoring with a soft turnaround in the paint followed by a pair of free throws. Mitchell continued her scoring on a fast break pull up from six feet and an easy lay up to put the Bonnies in front by four points early in the contest.
The Brown and White used a pair of first half runs to gain some distance from the Mastodons during the first session.
Beginning with a slashing lay up from Johnson, Bona jumped out to a 9-2 spurt to extend their lead to seven points at 17-10 with just under 12 minutes showing on the clock. Following a long two pointer from senior Johnna Lewis-Carlisle, freshman Armelia Horton and Mitchell combined for seven straight points capped by a coast-to-coast two pointer from Mitchell. During the run, the Brown and White defense held IPFW scoreless for a 3:41 span.
The next St. Bonaventure run began and ended with triples from Murray as the Bonnies scored 12 of the game's next 18 points to take their largest lead of the half at 29-21 with 4:48 remaining in the half. Murray also added a long jumper from the right wing to account for half of the Bona points during the run.
Although the club's traded baskets for the remaining 4:28 span, Doneth converted on a traditional three-point play with just over five ticks on the clock after racing down the floor for the bucket and the foul.
The Brown and White are idle for five days before traveling to Vestal, N.Y. to take on Binghamton on Saturday, Dec. 29 at 2:00 p.m. St. Bonaventure defeated the Bearcats earlier this season, 58-53, at the St. Bona Shootout in Elmira, N.Y.
