ST. LOUIS – The St. Bonaventure University women's basketball team fell to Saint Louis, 76-70, on the road Wednesday evening in the Atlantic 10 opener.
Laycee Drake and Olivia DiFranco paced the Bonnies on offense. Drake finished with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists while DiFranco scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting in 18 minutes off the bench.
It was a slow start on offense for the Brown and White, shooting just 4-for-14 in the first quarter.
The Billikens took advantage of the Bonnies cold start, taking a 13-9 lead after one.
The Bonnies, however, used an 11-2 run coming out of the quarter break to take a 20-15 lead, forcing a Saint Louis timeout.
A quick 4-0 spurt from the Billikens a few minutes later pulled the hosts even with the Bonnies 30-30.
Saint Louis made 1-of-2 at the line with seconds to play, but Djikanovic got a shot off just in time as the second quarter horn sounded, giving the Bonnies a 32-31 lead at the break.
Neither team was able to gain the edge in the third quarter, trading score for score the whole period. The Billikens were able to grab a 46-45 lead heading into the fourth.
The Billikens took a 59-50 lead with 6:42 remaining in the game following a 7-0 run capped off by a Jahda Denis layup.
Mackenzie Pettinelli capped off a 6-0 run from the Bonnies to cut the deficit down to two, 63-61, with just under four minutes to play.
A 3-pointer and a layup on back-to-back possessions from the Billikens pushed their lead back to seven.
Pettinelli struck again with a minute to play with a 3-pointer from the corner, bringing the Bonnies back within four, 70-66.
That is as close as the Bonnies would get as Saint Louis used a 5-0 run to put the game out of reach.
GAME NOTES
- The Bonnies finished the game shooting 29-for-67 (43.3 percent) from the floor while Saint Louis shot 29-for-68 (42.6 percent) from the field.
- Bona's outrebounded the Billikens, 42-41.
- The Brown and White registered 26 bench points to Saint Louis' nine.
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH JIM CROWLEY
"Credit to Saint Louis. They really attacked the rim, especially in the second half. We weren't able to get stops when we needed to. We made some good runs, but giving up 30 points in a quarter is not a good way to win a game, especially on the road. Proud of the way we hung around. We just couldn't get the stop we needed."
UP NEXT
The Bonnies return to non-conference play Saturday, Dec. 6 when they travel to take on Le Moyne. Tipoff is slated for 1:00 p.m.
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