MORGANTOWN, W.V. – The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team (5-6) fell to the West Virginia Mountaineers (6-2), 67-47, in the final game of their eight-game road stand. The Bonnies struggled shooting early and WVU took advantage by building an insurmountable lead and cruising to their sixth victory.
The Bonnies came out aggressive defensively holding the Mountaineers to just 12 points over the first 11:11. Trailing 12-6, Ashley Zahn hit a three to cut the lead in half on the Bonnies first possession following the U12 media timeout. On the next St. Bonaventure possession, Doris Ortegahit a jumper in the lane to cut the WVU lead to just one, 12-11, with 9:10 remaining in the half. That was as close as the Bonnies came in this one.
West Virginia got out in transition and created a 16-2 run over the next 8:49 to close the half out with a 28-13 lead. The 13 first half points were a season low in any half for the Bonnies. As a team, the Brown and White shot a dismal 22.7 percent (5-22) from the floor. Ortega led the Bonnies with six in the first half on 3-7 shooting.
The second half did on bring new life for the Bonnies as West Virginia broke out of the gates into an 8-0 run before the Bonnies finally found their first field goal of the half with 16:43 to play. It was their first field goal since the 9:10 mark in the first half.
WVU built their largest lead of 30, 48-18, with 11:50 to go in the game. The Bonnies flipped the switch and found an offensive groove while playing strong defense from that point on. Alaina Walker scored 13 of her co-game high 17 points in the second half to lead the charge for the Bonnies.
When trailing by 30, the Bonnies were shooting as low as 22.6 percent from the floor but finished the game at 38.0 percent.
Ashley Zahn scored five of her eight during the late game run. Doris Ortega finished behind Walker with 12 points giving the Bonnies multiple double-digit scorers for the tenth time this season.
A Kelcie Rombach lay-up brought the lead down to 19 but WVU would ultimately claim a 67-47 victory, not allowing the Bonnies to repeat the magic they created in the Coliseum last season.
Katie Healy scored six points and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench while Nyla Rueter and Kelcie Rombach added two each.
West Virginia out-rebounded the Bonnies 35-27 and forced SBU into 13 turnovers while only committing eight of their own. WVU outscored the Bonnies 36-30 in the paint. They also outscored the Bonnies in points off turnovers (17-2), second chance points (10-4) and bench points (18-10).
NEXT UP: The Bonnies will finally return home on Sunday, Dec. 16 to take on Little Three rival Canisius at 1:00 p.m.
GAME NOTES: The Bonnies went 2-6 on their eight-game road stand. At 5-6 the Brown and White is below .500 through 11 games for the first time since the 2004-05 season. That year the Bonnies finished 9-19 overall, 4-12 in A-10 play. 47 points is their second lowest scoring output this season (45 vs. Toledo). It is the eighth time this season the Bonnies have not registered at least 20 made field goals.
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