January 5, 2009

BULLDOGS FACE REMATCH WITH COLGATE MONDAY NIGHT AT HOME, TIPOFF AT 7 P.M.

January 5, 2009

BULLDOGS FACE REMATCH WITH COLGATE MONDAY NIGHT AT HOME, TIPOFF AT 7 P.M.

TONIGHT'S MATCHUP - Bryant vs. Colgate
Date: January 5, 2009
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Smithfield, R.I.
Arena: Chace Athletic Center (2,600)
Series: Bryant leads, 1-0

BRYANT BULLDOGS UPDATE
Bryant enters today's contest off a tough, 67-58 loss to the Atlantic 10's St. Bonaventure University at the Chace Athletic Center on Friday, Jan 2. Kelsey O'Keefe earned her third double-double of the season in the first game of the new year, which also served as just the Bulldogs' second home game of the 2008-09 campaign.

On the year, Bryant is led by 13.6 points per game from junior O'Keefe, who joined the 1,000-point club with her first basket in Dec. 1's home-opening win. The co-captain also paces the Bulldogs on the glass, collecting 7.6 boards per contest while shooting 71.4 percent from the line and dishing out 28 assists. Sophomore Siamone Bennett has 17 blocks to lead the team, as do her 12 steals - a lead she shares with senior co-captain Cara Johnson. Frosh Shannon Wood and junior Kristin Mraz share duties at the point, with Mraz turning it on as of late, averaging 8.0 points per game over the last four games and leading the squad with 29 helpers.

THE GAME
Today's 7 p.m. matchup is the second meeting of the season between the Bulldogs and the Raiders, as the team's also faced off in a first-round tilt at the Fordham Holiday Tournament on Dec. 28. Bryant took the win in the first matchup, 71-59, to advance to the tournament championship. This is also the second of back-to-back home games for the Bulldogs, who have only played for the home crowd twice so far this season.

SCOUTING COLGATE (4-10)
A team that has already produced one of the biggest turnarounds from last season in all of the Division I ranks, Colgate enters the Chace Athletic Center 4-10 on the season. The Raiders are at the end of a long, 10-day, five-game roadtrip on which they have gone 2-2 thus far. In their last outing, the Raiders fell to a scrappy Central Connecticut team, 83-63, despite 20 points from Tayler Wejnert and 44.4 percent shooting from the floor.

Wejnert and Sami Koslowski pace Colgate on the year, with Wejnert averaging 15.8 points per game in four games played and Koslowski grabbing 10.5 ppg in 14 starts. Georgia Gier's 7.2 boards per outing rule the glass, while Koslowski chips in 17 steals and Patricia Oakes adds 12 blocks on the year.

COLGATE VS. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Raiders have squared off against members of the NEC four times so far this season. And while the Bulldogs can't call themselves Northeast Conference members quite yet, here is how Colgate has fared against the Bulldogs' future conference opponents:
11/13 vs. Mount Saint Mary's Loss, 60-39
11/22 vs. Saint Francis (NY) Win, 56-54
12/1 at Wagner Loss, 58-56 (OT)
12/31 at Central Connecticut Loss, 83-63

Aside from the previous bout between the Bulldogs and the Raiders, Colgate has also faced off against two common Bulldog opponents outside the NEC. The Raiders, like the Bulldogs, fell to Binghamton University, but unlike Bryant, Colgate also lost to the University of New Hampshire, a team the Bulldogs beat, 69-66, on Nov. 14 for their first-ever Division I victory.

LAST TIME OUT
The Bryant University women's basketball team, led by the third double-double of the season from junior co-captain Kelsey O'Keefe (Warren, Mass.), hung tough but couldn't hold up against the stiff offense of St. Bonaventure University, falling, 67-58, at the Chace Athletic Center Friday afternoon in its first bout of the new year.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? BRYANT vs. ST. BONAVENTURE (1/2/09)
The Bonnies (10-4) never trailed in the game, taking their first double-digit lead at the 11:20 mark of the first frame, 19-9, on a Megan Van Tatenhove layup. A Dana Mitchell layup with 7:23 to play moved the visitors' lead to 12 points, 23-11, before the Bulldogs (4-8) turned it on to go on a 13-5 run and narrow the deficit to just four points with 4:50 showing before the break.

The streak was capped off by an O'Keefe trey - one of five she had on the day from downtown - to close the St. Bonaventure edge to 28-24, but the Bulldogs would score just one more point for the remainder of the half as St. Bonaventure extended its lead to 13 points, the largest lead of the half, and enter the break up, 38-25.

The Bonnies didn't cool off much after the break, but a layup by Courtney Schermerhorn (Lowell, Mass.) cut the St. Bonaventure advantage to nine points with 18:22 to go. A Siamone Bennett (Newburgh, N.Y.) bucket would do the same with 16:51 left, but those were the only gaps in the Bonnies' double-digit lead until the 4:49 mark of the second frame when O'Keefe cut the deficit to just six points on the back of clutch back-to-back three-pointers fed from Kristin Mraz (Johnstown, N.Y.).

And while the Bulldogs played tough to narrow the gap even more, they would not be able to keep the Bonnies from the basket, allowing the visitors to outscore them 9-6 in the final four minutes, completing the 67-58 SBU victory.

Bryant would shoot 50 percent from the floor in the second half, outscoring the Bonnies, 33-29, but it wouldn't be enough to stay perfect at home.

O'Keefe recorded 12 second-half points, scoring a game-high 18 points on the day and adding a game-best 11 boards for her third double-double of the season and the only one of the game. Bennett recorded a trio of blocks to compliment a seven-point, five-board effort, while Schermerhorn added seven points and three steals of her own.

St. Bonaventure, who was led by 11 points from Armelia Horton and Katelyn Murray and had five players in double figures, won the rebound game, 38-30, while Bryant recorded five blocks on the day with nine three-pointers.

THE HIGHLIGHTS
O'Keefe's third double-double of the season and over 50 percent shooting from the floor (6-of-10, 5-of-7 from 3-point land) proved that she is able to convert superstar Division II talent into a strong and dominating Division I effort.

BABY GRAND
With a layup 43 seconds into Monday's 53-50 win over St. Francis (NY), junior Kelsey O'Keefe became the 19th player in Bryant women's basketball history to pass the 1000-point plateau. The 6-1 forward enters tonight's game with 1,014 points after being the team's top points scorer in each of the past two seasons. O'Keefe is the first player to achieve such a feat since Joanna Skiba ('07) reached the 1000-point plateau against Assumption College on November 30, 2006, and O'Keefe is one of the fastest to reach the landmark.

BURKE EARNS 250TH CAREER VICTORY
With a first-round win over Colgate University at the Fordham Holiday Classic on Dec. 28, 18-year head coach Mary Burke earned her 250th 250th career victory. In her 18th season as head coach of the Bryant University women's basketball program, Burke has a career record of 250-241 and has enjoyed two 20-win seasons over her coaching days. She entered 2008-09 with a 246-234 career record. The Bulldogs' have earned four wins so far this season to get Burke to the landmark win.

STARTING LINEUP GETS A FACELIFT
After a loss at the hands of University of Rhode Island on Nov. 28, the Bulldog starting lineup got a facelift for the next day's contest against the Big Red. Three Bulldogs - sophomore Amanda Pierlioni (Plainville, Conn./Plainville) and freshmen Lekia Cowen (Hopedale, Mass./Hopedale) and Shannon Wood (Gorham, Maine/Catherine McAuley) - earned their first career start, while junior Jaime Campbell (Springfield, Mass./Minnechaug Regional) got her second career start and first of the 2008-09 season to join O'Keefe on the court for the opening tip.

Only Wood and O'Keefe carried over to the Bulldogs' next game, with senior Cara Johnson (Endicott, N.Y./Union-Endicott), junior Courtney Schermerhorn (Lowell, Mass./Lowell) and sophomore Siamone Bennett (Newburgh, N.Y./Newburgh Free Academy) rejoining the starting five. The quintet has stuck entering the new year.

BURKE NAMED TO INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE HALL OF FAME
Rhode Island hoops pioneer and Bryant head coach Mary Burke has been named among the 12 headed for the RI Interscholastic League Hall of Fame.

A Rhode Island native, Burke was a great multi-sport athlete in the early days of the league's girls sports programs and is one of the best athletic success stories of any of the league's female graduates. She will be inducted on May 6 at the league's annual Hall of Fame induction dinner at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick.

BRYANT JOINS THE DIVISION I NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
In October of 2007, Bryant University officially accepted an invitation to join the Division I Northeast Conference. The school began a four-year transition in the fall of 2008-09 and become a full member of the Northeast Conference in the fall of 2012-13. Bryant will not be eligible for conference or NCAA postseason play during the four-year transition period. Other members of the Northeast Conference include: Central Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson, Lond Island University, Monmouth, Mount St. Mary's, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (NY), St. Francis (PA) and Wagner.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Chace Athletic Center has been kind to the Bulldog women in the past, but it will have less chances to be lucky this season in Division I. The women host just eight home contests and are 1-1 in the safe confines of the Chace Athletic Center. The Bulldogs hosted St. Francis (NY) on Dec. 1, getting their first Division I home win, and returned home in January 2009 where they fell to St. Bonaventure in the first game of back-to-back home contests to open the new year. Tonight's contest against Colgate is the back end of the two-game home stretch.

CROSSING ENEMY LINES
Including members from Bryant's future home in the Northeast Conference as well as Independents, the Bulldogs will compete against seven different Division I conferences in 2008-09. Here is how they've fared so far.
Bryant vs. Division I conferences:
  America East: 1-1
  Atlantic 10: 0-3
  Independent: 0-0
  Ivy League: 0-1
  MEAC: 0-0
  Northeast Conference: 2-1
  Patriot League: 1-2

NO TIME TO WAIT
On November 14, the 2008-09 women's basketball team joined the women's soccer team and women's volleyball team as the only Bulldog programs to get their-ever first Division I win in their first DI contest with a 69-66 win over UNH. Kelsey O'Keefe scored a season-high 17 points in the contest on four three-pointers and 6-for-15 total shooting from the floor while Siamone Bennett and Kristin Mraz also scored in the double digits with 15 and 13 points, respectively. O'Keefe and senior Cara Johnson paced the team on the boards, each collecting seven.

OH CAPTAINS, MY CAPTAINS
Senior Cara Johnson and junior Kelsey O'Keefe have been named the 2008-09 team captains.

UP NEXT
The Bulldogs hit the road again for a three-game stretch in which they stay fairly local. Bryant first travels to Worcester, Mass. to take on Holy Cross at 7 p.m. on Jan. 7 before returning to Rhode Island for a 1 p.m. bout with Brown on Jan. 10. A Jan. 13 date with Yale rounds out the roadtrip.

MAPPING IT OUT
Despite its home in Smithfield, R.I., Bryant boasts no homegrown talent on its 2008-09 roster. Instead, the Bulldogs hail from five different states, with six players coming to Douglas Pike from Massachusetts and six from the tri-state area. The Bay Staters make up much of the junior class (Schermerhorn, O'Keefe, Campbell, Mayshar) and add senior Fontaine and frosh Cowen, while five (Bennett, Mraz, Johnson, Dessingue, Stahura) call New York home. The remainder of the Bryant roster come from New Jersey (Hudspeth) and Maine (Wood).

BULLDOGS ON THE AIR
Fans can catch all of the action this year by logging onto www.bryantbulldogs.com to watch all Bryant home games live online, courtesy of Penn Atlantic. Also this year, track each game live online for free with LIVE STATS by visiting www.bryantbulldogs.com and clicking the Live Stats link.