NEWARK, DE – The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team (3-4) dropped its fourth-straight game this season with a 68-58 loss on the road at Delaware.
With Delaware’s All-American forward Elena Delle Donne sitting out due to illness, the Bonnies came out firing, jumping out to an 11-2 lead less than seven minutes into the ball game. Ashley Zahn andAlaina Walker accounted for nine of those points in the early going.
Every time that Delaware started to chip away at the lead in the first half, the Bonnies had an answer. With 9:19 left in the first half, the Blue Hens had cut the lead to just five at 18-13. But the Bonnies responded with an 11-2 run to take the largest lead they would have all game, 29-15.
CeCe Dixon was sparking the Bonnies offense during their early game success knocking down three triples on three tries for nine first half points.
Delaware used a 10-1 run to close the half and leave the Bonnies leading by just five, 30-25 going into the locker room.
St. Bonaventure committed just four turnovers in the first half. They shot 42.9 percent (12-28) from the floor and 71.4 percent (5-7) from three-point range. Dixon scored nine points to lead all scorers while Ashley Zahn scored five points and grabbed four rebounds. Freshman Katie Healy, who has struggled in the last few games, contributed four points and four rebounds.
In the second half, the roles reversed significantly. Delaware used an 8-2 run to grab the lead, 33-32, by the first media timeout.
The Bonnies would tie the score at 35 with 14:31 left to play thanks to an Emily Michael three-pointer but Delaware re-took the lead on their next possession and never relinquished it. The Blue Hens used a 14-3 run to open up a 49-38 advantage with 8:13 left.
Delaware pushed its lead up to 13 with 4:51 to play in the game on a pair of free throws. From there the Bonnies made an effort to chip away but weren’t able to get the lead inside of nine over the next three and a half minutes.
With 43 seconds to play, SBU finally cut the lead to seven thanks to a second chance lay-up by Doris Ortega. Delaware missed the ensuing pair of free throws and the Bonnies had a chance to cut the lead to five, but they allowed Delaware to grab the offensive rebound following that pair of missed shots and that sealed the game. The Blue Hens would add a few more three throws to finish off the 68-58 victory.
Delaware’s Lauren Carra recorded her first career double-double (20 points, 13 rebounds) to lead the Blue Hens to their third victory this season.
CeCe Dixon led the scoring for the Bonnies with 14, Ortega added 13 and Zahn contributed 10. Freshmen Katie Healy and Emily Michael added nine and six respectively.
The Bonnies will be back in action on Saturday (Dec. 1) against Southern University in the first game of the Toledo Glass City Tournament. It will be the first ever meeting between those two schools.
GAME NOTES: The Bonnies are in the midst of their first four-game losing streak since the 2006-07 season when they went winless between Feb. 4-Feb 15 with losses to UMass, Saint Louis, George Washington and Saint Joseph’s. The Bonnies broke that streak at home against Duquesne Feb. 18.
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