January 6, 2009

BULLDOGS LOOK TO KEEP WINNING AGAINST HOLY CROSS WEDNESDAY NIGHT ON ROAD, TIPOFF IS 7 P.M.

Monday, January 6, 2009

BULLDOGS LOOK TO KEEP WINNING AGAINST HOLY CROSS WEDNESDAY NIGHT ON ROAD, TIPOFF IS 7 P.M.

THE MATCHUP - Bryant at Holy Cross
Date: January 7, 2009
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location: Worcester, Mass.
Arena: Hart Center (3,600)
Series: First Meeting

BRYANT BULLDOGS UPDATE
The Bulldogs hit the road again after two-straight home contests and travel to Worcester, Mass. fresh off Monday's 63-53 win over fellow Patriot Leaguer Colgate University. Bryant's Cara Johnson led the way with a team-high 16 points, while Kelsey O'Keefe and Siamone Bennett also chipped in double-digit points (10 and 12, respectively) while pulling down a squad-best eight boards.

On the year, Bryant is led by 13.3 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. Bennett's 19 blocks lead the team, while senior co-captain Johnson paces the Bulldogs in steals with 13. Frosh Shannon Wood and junior Kristin Mraz share duties at the point, with Mraz turning it on as of late, averaging 8.3 points per game over the last four games. The pair both have a team-best 31 helpers.

THE GAME
Today's 7 p.m. matchup is the first-ever meeting between the Bulldogs and the Crusaders and the second-straight Bryant matchup against a Patriot League team. Bryant is 2-2 against the Patriot League on the 2008-09 season and look to get above .500 against the conference with tonight's outing.

SCOUTING HOLY CROSS (4-10)
The Crusaders look for their first winning streak of the season with a victory over Bryant and are coming off two-straight wins over Maine and Dartmouth. Against the Big Green, junior guard Briana McFadden paced Holy Cross with 18 points and seven boards, while Bethany O'Dell chipped in another nine. The pair earned all 14 free throw attempts in the contest, combining to go 11-for-14 from the stripe in a 57-45 victory.

The pair are the team leaders on the year, with McFadden averaging 16.4 points per game and O'Dell collecting 10.8 ppg. Whitney Fremeau paces the Crusaders on the glass, pulling down 5.2 boards per outing, while McFadden's 30 assists and 21 steals are also team bests. Elizabeth Campbell is at the helm under the basket, recording 11 blocks.

HOLY CROSS VS. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
Holy Cross has not squared off against any member of the NEC so far this season, but the Bulldogs and Crusaders have matched up against a common opponent in the University of Rhode Island. But both teams lost their respective battle with the Rams, with Bryant falling, 64-57, on Nov. 28 and Holy Cross dropping a 60-53 decision at the Ryan Center on Dec. 9.

LAST TIME OUT
Led by a 16-point effort from senior co-captain Cara Johnson (Endicott, N.Y.) and strong team shooting, the Bryant University basketball team completed the two-game season sweep of Colgate University with a 63-53 win over the Raiders Monday night at the Chace Athletic Center.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? BRYANT vs. COLGATE (1/5/09)
The Bulldogs (5-8) led nearly the entire outing, getting 44.3 percent shooting from the floor to win Monday's rematch.

Bryant quickly turned a 2-0 opening Colgate (4-11) advantage into a two-point swing for the home team, 7-5, after a pair of successful free throws from sophomore Siamone Bennett (Newburgh, N.Y.) five minutes into the opening frame.

From there, the Bulldogs went on a 10-4 run that ended with a Kristin Mraz (Johnstown, N.Y.) open layup running all the way across the baseline for a 17-9 Bulldog edge.

But the Raiders cut it to a two-point lead after a pair of "and-one" opportunities (one of them successful) to cut the home advantage to 26-24, and would complete the eight-point comeback on the next play with 3:14 showing on the clock off a Sami Kozlowski jumper.

But with two minutes left before the intermission, Mraz broke the stalemate with a shot from downtown, dished out by freshman Shannon Wood (Gorham, Maine), to give the Bulldogs a 29-26 edge.

After another Colgate basket, with just two seconds remaining, Mraz travelled coast-to-coast for a quick layup, giving Bryant back a three-point lead to take a 31-28 edge into the locker room at the half.

In the second session, the Bulldogs allowed the visiting Raiders to climb back in, taking their first lead since the 18:54 mark of the first half off a Krista Moser layup with 14:18 to play, 38-37.

But Bryant wouldn't stand for trailing for long, taking back a single-point edge less than a minute later on a Johnson basket and never again giving up the lead.

The Bulldogs grew their advantage to six just under halfway through the frame and would solidify the win on back-to-back threes from junior Kelsey O'Keefe (Warren, Mass.) with under five to play.

That lead would grow to 10 before the final buzzer, as the Bulldogs captured their fifth win of the season and second against Colgate, 63-53.

Johnson would pace the home side with 16 points, adding seven boards and a steal in 32 minutes of play, while O'Keefe and Bennett would also register double-digit scoring with 10 and 12 points, respectively. Both had a team-best eight rebounds.

The Bulldogs outshot the Raiders from the floor, hitting 44.3 percent to Colgate's 33.9 percent for the contest, and would also win the rebounds game, 44-40.

Colgate's Tayler Wejnert led all scorers with 17, while Patricia Oakes pulled down 11 boards.

THE HIGHLIGHTS
The win not only completed the series sweep over the Raiders, but also pumped the Bulldogs back up above .500 for the season entering a tough stretch of schedule.

BABY GRAND
With a layup 43 seconds into Dec. 1'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 1,092 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 career victory. In her 18th season as head coach of the Bryant University women's basketball program, Burke has a career record of 251-242 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 2-1 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. But Bryant got back to winning on Monday with a 63-53 topping of Colgate at home.

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: 2-2

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 stay on the road again for two more contests, although they won't be far from home. Bryant returns to Rhode Island for a 1 p.m. bout with Brown on Jan. 10 in Providence before travelling to New Haven, Conn. for a Jan. 13 date with Yale to round 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.