January 7, 2009
O'KEEFE KEYS BRYANT TRANSITION GAME
Kelsey O'Keefe's only New Year's resolution -
well, in addition to maybe eating a little healthier - was to
continue to help her team win. She stuck to it Monday night,
scoring 10 points and pulling down eight rebounds to lead Bryant
past Colgate, 63-53.
The Bulldogs will face another Patriot League squad tonight when
they take on Holy Cross at the Hart Center. It will be a homecoming
for O'Keefe, who, during her storied six years at Quaboag Regional,
was one of the best high school basketball players Central Mass.
has ever seen.
"It will be a fun atmosphere," O'Keefe said. "I'm looking forward
to it."
It's been a big season for O'Keefe and the Bulldogs as they make
the transition to Division 1. Bryant, which formerly competed in
the Northeast-10 Conference, is 5-8 with wins over Colgate (two),
St. Francis, Central Connecticut and UNH. During a four-year
reclassification period, Bryant will not be eligible for the
postseason and will compete as a Division 1 independent. At the end
of the four-year process, Bryant will become a full member of the
Northeast Conference for all sports.
"(The transition from Division 2 to D1) has gone well," O'Keefe
said. "It's a little different than what we're used to, but it's
like playing the best teams in the Northeast-10 every night. Our
record might not show it, but we're holding our own."
Only one of Bryant's losses - a 70-51 setback to Fordham - has been
by more than 15 points.
O'Keefe, who was a Northeast-10 second-team selection last year
after leading Bryant in scoring and rebounding, is having another
solid season. She again tops the Bulldogs in scoring (13.3 ppg) and
rebounding (7.6). She's being counted on more for her outside
shooting and she's been one of the Bulldogs' better 3-point
threats. She nailed back-to-back 3s to solidify the win over the
Raiders on Monday.
"I knew she would be a good college player and she's in a very good
situation," said Holy Cross coach Bill Gibbons,
who recruited O'Keefe. "I always liked her as a passer and she's
doing a good job of that. It's the same thing now as you saw when
she was in high school - she knows how to play the game and she
knows how to score."
With 2,650 points, O'Keefe finished her high school career as the
highest all-time female scorer in Central Mass. and the fourth
all-time scorer in Massachusetts (boys and girls). Lekia
Cowen of Hopedale, who is a Bryant teammate of O'Keefe's,
and Carla Berube of Oxford are the only other
2,000-point high school scorers from Central Mass. Tonight's game
will also be a return home for Cowen and Bryant junior
Adrianne Mayshar of West Boylston.
O'Keefe and her twin sister Reilly led Quaboag to
two state championships. After two years at St. Anselm, Reilly is
now at Worcester State and leading the Lancers with 13.3 points and
7 rebounds a game. Their younger sister Meagan is
a senior at Quaboag and in the midst of the college search.
Kelsey, who scored her 1,000th collegiate point in December,
started 141 consecutive games in high school and she's been an iron
woman in college as well. She's played in every game the last three
years, a streak of 74 straight games.
"I've been lucky," O'Keefe said. "I've had injuries, but they've
all been in the offseason."
About halfway through Bryant's first season in Division 1,
O'Keefe's looking forward to the rest of it.
"We just have to keep building on playing full games," she said.
"We'll play hard for 35 minutes, then have a five-minute lull and
we can't dig out of it. No one's expecting us to do anything -
we're new to Division 1 - but we're going to keep pushing."
