BRYANT LOOKS TO ENTER BREAK OFF WIN; TO TAKE ON LAFAYETTE SUNDAY AT 1 P.M. AT KIRBY FIELD HOUSE

December 6, 2008

BRYANT LOOKS TO ENTER BREAK OFF WIN; TO TAKE ON LAFAYETTE SUNDAY AT 1 P.M. AT KIRBY FIELD HOUSE

Game Notes / Updated Stats / Video / Gametracker

UPDATE                                                           
The Bulldogs, after suffering a 68-55 loss at the hands of a tough Lehigh University squad Friday night, remain in the Lehigh Valley for their second of three matches against Patriot League opponents to face off against Lafayette College today at 1:00 p.m. Bryant looks to get back on the side of winning in Easton in their first-ever visit to Lafayette and Kirby Field House.

On the year, Bryant is led by 13.3 points per game from junior Kelsey 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 8.0 per contest while shooting 35.9 (41-for-111) percent from the field. Sophomore Siamone Bennett's nine blocks are a team best, as are the 10 steals and 22 assists from frosh Shannon Wood, who is also proving to be strong from beyond the arc, going 3-for-3 on Monday and 5-for-11 on the season. O'Keefe also chips in 21 helpers and shots over 70 percent from the line.

THE GAME
Today's 1 p.m. matchup is the first-ever meeting between the Bulldogs and the Leopards. It is also the second of three-consecutive games that Bryant will see against the Patriot League, facing off against Colgate in its next bout on Dec. 28.  

SCOUTING LAFAYETTE
The Leopards notched their second-consecutive win and third victory of the season in a 70-49 topping of New Jersey Institute of Technology Friday night at Kirby Field House. Sophomore Elizabeth Virgin led the team with a double-double (11p, 10r), while Cristin Zavocki paced Lafayette with a team-high 16 points, 14 of them coming from three-point range. LaKeisha Wright added 11 points of her own to go along with her seven rebounds. As a team, the Leopards shot nearly 48 percent from the field and held a 42-29 advantage on the glass.

Zavocki paces the team on the year, averaging 10.4 points per outing while Emily Garner leads on the glass, pulling down 6.4 boards per game. Jessica Spicer leads in blocks (4), steals (7) and assists (24), while shooting 76.5 percent from the charity stripe.  

LAFAYETTE VS. THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The Leopards have squared off against members of the NEC just once so far this season. And while the Bulldogs can't call themselves Northeast Conference members quite yet, here is how Lafayette has fared against future conference opponents:
       11/25 at Mount Saint Mary's Loss, 58-54
 
LAST TIME OUT
Behind the second double-double of the season from junior Kelsey O'Keefe (Warren, Mass./Quaboag), the Bryant University women's basketball team fought hard, but couldn't overcome a powerful Lehigh University side, falling, 68-55, Friday night at Stabler Arena.  

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? BRYANT vs. LEHIGH (12/5/08)
The Bulldogs (3-5) allowed the home side to get off to a 6-0 start before sophomore Siamone Bennett (Newburgh, N.Y.) got Bryant back to within one, 6-5, eventually scoring the Bulldogs' first seven points of the evening.  

Lehigh (6-2) would double Bryant's points, 14-7, at the 12:27 mark before a 19-11 score held for 4:16 of the frame. From there, the Mountain Hawks would outscore the Bulldogs, 15-11, to finish the half and send the visitors into the locker room down, 34-22.  

Bryant couldn't contain an aggressive Mountain Hawks offense that shot 45.5 percent in the first frame to the Bulldogs' 31.3, and struggled again from a turnover perspective, giving the ball away 14 times. Bennett's seven points paced the Bulldogs at intermission, while junior Kelsey O'Keefe (Warren, Mass.) had a frame-high eight boards.  

Out of the break, Bryant cut the home team's lead to nine, 38-29, on junior Courtney Schermerhorn (Lowell, Mass.)'s fifth point of the half, a bucket at 17:22. But Lehigh pushed its lead back to 49-35 with Bryant suffering a nearly four-minute scoring drought and getting into some early foul trouble.  

The Bulldogs would cut it to 11 when junior Jaime Campbell (Springfield, Mass.) completed back-to-back jumpers from the key with 3:20 showing on the clock to narrow the lead to 61-50 in the host's favor, and would steal an inbound pass with under a minute to play for a basket from senior Cara Johnson (Endicott, N.Y.) to cut their deficit to 64-54.  

But the surge would be too late, as the Bulldogs would eventually fall to the Mountain Hawks, 68-55.  

Bryant would be outscored by just one in the second frame, 34-33, and shoot 32.8 percent from the floor on the day, limiting its second-half turnovers to 10. The Mountain Hawks got 46.6 percent shooting from the hardwood, going 4-for-11 from three-point range.  

The Bulldogs were near-perfect from the line on the contest, hitting 8-of-9 to Lehigh's 10-for-16 mark.

O'Keefe's 11 points and 10 boards earned her the second double-double of the season, while Bennett collected 11 points and nine rebounds for a near double-double of her own. O'Keefe's 10 off the glass were a game high, while the 11 points from the pair paced Bryant. Lehigh was led by a game-high 17 points from Alex Ross, who went 3-for-7 from downtown.  

THE HIGHLIGHTS
O'Keefe earned her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds after averaging a double-double last season as a sophomore at the Division II level. The junior didn't score until the last minute of the first half, but came back with nine points in the second. The Bulldogs also went near perfect from the line, hitting 8-of-9 opportunities, something they had been struggling with in the early goings of the season.  

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 NEARS 250TH CAREER VICTORY
With Monday's win over the Terriers, 18-year head coach Mary Burke is just a single win away from 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 249-239 and has enjoyed two 20-win seasons over her coaching days. She entered 2008-09 with a 246-234 career record. The Bulldogs' trio of wins so far this season has Burke just one away from 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.  

DE-FENSE!
Despite not officially being included in the Division I statistical rankings due to rules for reclassifying institutions, Bryant is holding opponents to just .247 shooting percentage from 3-point land. That number would tie the Bulldogs with Oral Roberts as No. 39 in the country in 3-point field goal defense. Opponents have successfully converted on just 24 of their 97 attempts from 3-point range.  

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, but are 1-0 in the safe confines of the Chace Athletic Center after Monday's win over St. Francis (NY). The Bulldogs won't return home again until January 2009 when they host back-to-back home contests to open the new year, first welcoming St. Bonaventure on Friday, January 2 at 1 p.m. before playing host to Colgate on Monday, January 5 at 7 p.m.  

CROSSING ENEMY LINES
Including members from Bryant's future home in the Northeast Conference, the Bulldogs will compete against six 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: 0-1
  Independent: 0-0
  Ivy League: 0-1
  MEAC: 0-0
  Northeast Conference: 2-1
  Patriot League: 0-1  

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 enter into a three-week break from the hardwood that takes them through Christmas. Bryant returns to basketball on Dec. 28 and 29 when they compete in the Fordham University tournament in Bronx, N.Y. They will open the tournament with a 1 p.m. matchup against Colgate.  

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 eight 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 Connecticut (Pierlioni, Reynolds), 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.