Bulldogs slay Knights, 74-52, on senior night in Smithfield

SMITHFIELD, R.I. – The Bryant University women's basketball team celebrated its seniors in game-winning fashion, defeating Fairleigh Dickinson, 74-52, Monday evening at the Chace Athletic Center.

Senior Breanna Rucker (Cincinnati, Ohio) led the Bulldogs (17-12, 14-4 NEC) with her 10th-straight double-double off a team-high 20 points and 15 rebounds, including nine on the offensive glass. Junior Alex Klein (Waterloo, Ont.) backed Rucker with 14 points, shooting 6-for-13 from the floor, while dishing out a career-high five assists. Senior Maureen Leahy (Springfield, Pa.) posted a season-high 10 points, finishing 5-of-9 from the field, while tying her career-best seven rebounds in the contest.

The Bulldogs were hot from 3-point land, hitting 42.1 percent (8-for-19) from being the arc, while the Knights (11-20, 8-10) only drained 2-of-10 from downtown. Senior Kelsey Cruz pitched in 22 of the Knights' 52 points on the night, making 10-of-28 overall. Off the bench, Anastasia Williams added 15 points and nine rebounds in her 27 minutes of play.

Freshman Kierra Palmer (Aberdeen, Md.) was quick to get the Bulldogs involved, dishing out four assists on the team's first five baskets, including a cross-court pass to classmate Haley Connors (West Haven, Conn.), who drained the three to give Bryant a 12-2 lead at the 3:23 mark in the first. Palmer went on to finish the night with a game-high eight assists, while the Bulldogs racked up 22 as a unit. Cruz kept the Knights in the contest, scoring the team's only six points of the opening quarter. Fairleigh Dickinson's period total marks the 12th occasion the Bulldogs have held an opponent to single digits in a quarter.

The Black and Gold opened the second with two-straight three-point possessions, as Connors found her second three of the game, followed by one from downtown by junior Morgan Olander (Mansfield, Conn.) to give Bryant a 15-point lead, 23-8, with 7:48 to play in the half. The hot shooting didn't end there, as Palmer and Connor both hit from behind the arc, pushing the Bulldogs' edge to 19, 31-12. Cruz was first into double-digit points between either team, when she finished the spin move in the post to cut FDU's deficit to 16, 35-19, with 0:49 seconds to go in the quarter. With five seconds remaining in the second, Leahy grabbed an offensive board and put it back up to help the Bulldogs to an 18-point, 37-19, halftime advantage.

In the third, Klein broke into double-digit points after finishing the lay in from Leahy to put Bryant up, 41-24, with 8:08 to play in the third. Junior Chanel Ramcharran (Pickering, Ont.) added to Bryant's 3-point frenzy, adding two of her own on back-to-back possessions for the Bulldogs, as they extended FDU's deficit to 18, 54-36, with 2:06 to go in the period. The Bulldogs found their largest margin of the quarter, when Leahy collected the offensive board off a Bryant missed free throw, putting it back up for the two-point play and, 57-37, advantage with 1:18 to play in the quarter.

The Bulldogs continued to dominate in the fourth, finding their largest lead of the game, 71-45, with 2:35 to go in the contest, as Rucker hit the mid-range jumper off the pass from senior Emma Sobieraski (Lockport, N.Y.). The Black and Gold held onto their healthy lead, defeating the Knights, 74-52, in Smithfield.

The No. 2 seed Bulldogs will host No. 7 LIU Brooklyn in the Northeast Conference Quarterfinals on Sunday, March 6 at 1 p.m.