UAlbany Women's Basketball Drops 64-62 Decision To St. Bonaventure

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information

St. Bonaventure, N.Y. – Dana Mitchell scored in the lane with 20.3 seconds left and the St. Bonaventure defense held UAlbany scoreless for the final seconds to lead the Bonnies to a 64-62 win in non-conference women’s basketball action on Tuesday evening at the Reilly Center.

UAlbany sophomore TaNika Thrower tied the game at 59-59 with 1:21 left to play, hitting a jump shot from the foul line as she fell backwards. Armelia Horton gave St. Bonaventure back the lead, 61-59, collecting a rebound from her own blocked shot and laying the ball in with 46 seconds on the clock. Charity Iromuanya made a steal under the basket for the Great Danes and put the ball in the basket with 27.9 ticks remaining to tie the game at 62-62.

UAlbany was forced to foul with just 3.8 remaining, but Erica Schiefen missed her first foul shot, giving the Great Danes back the ball. Kristin Higy passed the ball downcourt to Thrower, who was unable to get a shot off before time expired, giving the Bonnies the two-point victory.

St. Bonaventure (3-0) outscored the Great Danes 14-4 to start the second half before Higy hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc at 12:48 to pull within 12, 48-36. Horton and Scheifen both made two free throws to give the Bonnies a 50-40 lead with just over ten minutes to play. The Great Danes continued to go to the basket, pulling within 59-56 with just over two minutes to play, as Thrower got to the line on consecutive possessions and made four straight free throws to score four of her 16 total points.

"We just got started too late,” said head coach Trina Patterson. “If we played 40 minutes like we played the last seven or eight, I really believe we would have won this game. We couldn't make the plays at the end to get the win."

UAlbany (0-2) took a 13-11 lead at 13:33 in the first half as Higy, who led the team with 20 points, hit back-to-back three pointers. After Katelyn Murray pulled the Bonnies to within a point, 13-12, with one free throw at 12:39, Thrower converted one of two from the stripe to give the Great Danes back their two-point lead at 11:43.

Thrower then hit consecutive shots, one from the top of the key followed by a 3-pointer, to give the Great Danes a 19-18 lead. After exchanging baskets, St. Bonaventure took a one-point lead, 24-23, on two free throws by Mitchell at 6:16.

The Bonnies increased their lead, scoring six unanswered points before UAlbany’s Joy Sterling found the basket at 2:08 to pull the Great Danes within five, 30-25. Mitchell dropped a jump shot in an attempt to pull St. Bonaventure away, but Sterling struck again with 1:29 left in the half to keep the Great Danes within striking distance. Scheifen scored two of her 10 first-half points with just over a minute remaining, but Thrower hit a running jumper in the lane with less than a minute to play to set the deficit at five, 34-29, as the teams headed to the locker room at the halftime break.

Mitchell and Horton each scored a team-high 16 points for the Bonnies, while Schiefen and Tiara Johnson pulled down a game-high eight rebounds each. Iromuanya and Sherri Mikus came off the bench to each grab a team-leading five rebounds for the Great Danes.