ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – St. Bonaventure University women's basketball team picked up an Atlantic 10 victory Wednesday night, 59-50, as they battled off Davidson in the Reilly Center.
Laycee Drake led the way for the Bonnies as she recorded 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists. She didn't do it alone, however, as the Bonnies saw nine different players get into the scoring column with seven players scoring at least five points.
Both offense and defense clicked in the early stages of the game for St. Bonaventure.
The Bonnies started the game 4-for-8 from the field with a 3-pointer from Elyse MacDonough and buckets from Laycee Drake, Gabby Robinson and Aaliyah Parker.
Bona held Davidson to 2-for-6 shooting early and forced three turnovers to give St. Bonaventure a 9-4 lead at the media timeout in the first quarter.
The Bonnies offense stayed steady with a 3-pointer from Mackenzie Pettinelli and a pair of free throws from Kylie Buckley and Drake. However, Davidson punched back after the media timeout with a flurry of threes, and the Bonnies found themselves down after the first quarter, 16-14.
To open the second quarter, St. Bonaventure started to pour on the triples. Threes from Buckley and Drake and a foot on-the-line, two-point jumper from Parker found the game tied 22-22.
Late in the half, a contested fastbreak jumper by Drake reclaimed the lead for the Bonnies at 30-29. A few possessions later as the clock counted down from 10, Drake blocked a Davidson three-point attempt and raced down the floor to beat the halftime buzzer and give the Bonnies a 32-29 lead going into the half.
It was all hands on deck in the first half for the Bona offense as they saw seven different scorers.
A pair of buckets from Pettinelli out of halftime extended the lead to 37-29 for St. Bonaventure.
Davidson started clawing into the lead as the quarter went on but late baskets from Robinson, Drake and Buckley fended off the third quarter comeback and St. Bonaventure kept a 43-39 lead going into the final frame.
The Bona offense forced Davidson into a timeout early in the fourth quarter as a three by Kaylee Krysztof and a jumper by Parker extended the lead to 48-41.
Once again, Davidson started making a dent into the St. Bonaventure lead as after Olivia DiFranco made a jumper to give the Bonnies their largest lead of the game at 52-43 at the 4:49 mark in the fourth, Davidson went on a 7-0 run across the next 3:25 to make the score 52-50 with 1:24 left.
Buckley stopped the bleeding and made a tough turnaround jumper with 1:09 left in the game to extend the lead up to 54-50.
The Bona defense held strong in the last minute of the game and after a few stops and a few free throws, St. Bonaventure held onto for the 59-50 victory.
GAME NOTES
- The Bonnies finished the game shooting 39.7 percent (23-for-58) from the floor and held Davidson to 34.5 percent (20-for-58) from the field.
- Bona's bench outscored the Wildcat reserves, 17-4.
- The Brown and White won the battle on the glass, outrebounding Davidson, 37-33.
- St. Bonaventure held Davidson to just a 19.4 percent mark from beyond the arc.
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH JIM CROWLEY
"We had a string here where things didn't go our way, but honestly, I think we've been in control of that. We've been in some opportunities to get some important stops and haven't been there all the way and we were today. That's a good basketball team and I though we didn't back down, stayed physical on offense and stayed consistent on defense."
UP NEXT
The Bonnies remain at home to host Duquesne Saturday, Feb. 7. Tipoff is slated for 1:00 p.m. and will be the Bonnies' annual Pink Game.
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