Bulldogs tie best NEC start, going 4-0 after defeating Mount, 70-59

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – Recording its fourth-straight win, the Bryant University women's basketball team defeated Mount St. Mary's, 70-59, on the road on Monday afternoon, to advance to 4-0 in the Northeast Conference, tying their best-ever Division I conference start.

Junior Morgan Olander (Mansfield, Conn.) led the Bulldogs (7-8, 4-0 NEC) with a season-high 18 points off 8-for-10 from the floor and 2-for-4 from the line. Senior Breanna Rucker (Cincinnati, Ohio) recorded her eighth double-double of the season and 40th of her career off 15 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Chanel Ramcharran (Pickering, Ont.) came off the bench to tie her career-best 13 points, while dishing out a career-high eight assists. The point guard shot a team-high 83.3 percent overall, hitting 3-of-3 from behind the arc in 26 minutes of play.

The Bulldogs shot a season-high 55.8 percent from the field, while finishing 44.4 percent from 3-point land and a season-low 50 percent from the line. The Black and gold coughed up the ball on 21 occasions, but dished out 19 helpers from six different players. Bryant outrebounded the Mount, 30-22, continuing their 15-game positive rebounding margin streak.

Mount St. Mary's was led by Kayla Bates' 15-point performance, as the Mount shot 43.8 percent overall, 23.5 percent from behind the arc and 72.2 percent from the chalk. The Mount recorded 12 steals against the Bulldogs, while committing 19 turnovers of their own.

The Mount (4-11, 2-2 NEC) turned over the ball on four-straight trips down the court, to which the Bulldogs converted into four points, including a key 3-pointer by Rucker with three seconds left on the shot clock to put the Bulldogs up, 7-5, with 4:37 to play in the first quarter. Ramcharran totaled five of her career-high 13 points in the first, including one from downtown to close out the period with the Bulldogs' largest lead in the first ten minutes, 15-11.

The Bulldogs worked the inside-out game, as Rucker found classmate Dani Anderson (Wellington, Kan.) on the perimeter, who then made the extra pass to Ramcharran for the three at the top of the key to put the Bulldogs up, 20-11, at the eight-minute mark. With 4:56 to go in the second, Rucker dribbled baseline and finished the floater over six-foot center Sarafina Arthur-Williams as the shot clock expired, putting the Bulldogs on top, 24-13. Anderson pushed the lead to 13, 29-16, after stroking one from downtown, with 3:23 remaining in the half.

The Bulldogs came out to a slower start in the third, committing four turnovers in the first five minutes of the period, while allowing the Mount to cut the lead to seven, 35-28, when Bates took advantage of the isolation on the left side, finishing off the dribble, with 5:47 on the clock. Rucker's layup at the 4:08 mark put the Bulldogs up 11, 39-28, but the Mount would respond with a 5-0 run to close the gap to six, 39-33, after an Alexis Carter made jump shot.

Bryant opened the final quarter on a 10-point run, including back-to-back threes from sophomore Ivory Bailey (Wyomissing, Pa.), a deep jump jumper by Ramcharran and a layup by Olander to give the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game, 53-33, at the 7:45 mark in the fourth. The Mount narrowed the lead to 13, 62-49, after Jessica Harris scored four of the team's seven points in a two-minute span to close the gap at the three-minute mark. The two teams traded baskets down the stretch, with Mount tapering the Bryant lead to 11, but the home team ran out of time, resulting in a 70-59 Bulldogs' victory.

The Black and Gold return to Smithfield to take on the Blackbirds of LIU Brooklyn on Saturday at 4 p.m.