Raucous Crowd Leads Bryant to Big Win over Bentley 63-51

BRYANT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

February 3, 2007

Women's Basketball Wins Fifth Straight 63-51 over Bentley

SMITHFIELD, R.I. - In front of a record and raucous crowd over 1400 fans at the Chace Center Saturday afternoon, the Bryant women's basketball team remained on fire, defeating rival Bentley College 63-51 in a Northeast-10 Conference game.

With the victory, the Bulldogs are tied with the Falcons in the standings. Entering Saturday's contest, Bentley was fourth in the NE-10, while Bryant was tied for seventh.

Freshman Kelsey O'Keefe (Warren, Mass.) led all scorers 23 points and added nine rebounds in 35 minutes of action.

Bryant started fast, scoring the game's first nine points and led 31-12 at the 5:08 mark of the first half.  Bentley went over eight minutes without making a field goal during the run.

The Bulldogs limited Bentley to 8-of-22 shooting from the field in the first half. O'Keefe led Bryant with seven points, while Lauren Rubenoff (New Hartford, CT) and Courtney Schermerhorn (Lowell, Mass.) each tallied six points.

Bryant came out flying again in the second half going on a 6-0 run, thanks to the duo of Joanna Skiba (Providence, RI) and O'Keefe. They executed the pick-and-roll to perfection as O'Keefe had many easy lay-ins as a results.

Skiba finished with nine assists in 31 minutes off the bench.

Bentley slowly crept back into the game and cut the lead to six at 53-47 with 3:04 to play after Erica Kirwan converted a lay-in and made the foul shot after Bryant turned the ball over off the inbounds pass.

After failing to convert big free throws earlier this season at Bentley, the Bulldogs nailed 8-of-9 from the line in the final 2:30 to put the game away.

Rubenoff tallied 12 points and pulled down eight rebounds, while Bryant forced 22 Falcon turnovers.

The Bulldogs (15-7, 11-6 NE-10) will host Franklin Pierce in another big conference matchup Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.