Season Comes to a close with 67-56 loss to Bentley Friday

NORTH ANDOVER, MASS. - Dede Fogarty (Middletown, Conn.) had 17 points and Joanna Skiba (Providence, RI) scored 15 but it was not enough as second-seeded Bentley outscored the Bulldogs 37-18 in the second half to defeat Bryant, 67-56 in the first round of the 2005 NCAA tournament here Friday. Bryant ends its season with a 18-12 record.

Bryant came out firing early, opening up a 12-4 lead following a three-pointer by Skiba and a lay-up underneath by Megan Peper (Castleton, NY).  Another Skiba three from the top of the key made it 15-9 and following a steal and layup from Fogarty, the Bulldogs had their largest lead of the game, 17-6 with 13:42 remaining.

Bentley (27-7) , the 2005 Northeast-10 Conference champions would battle back twice in the half first cutting the lead to six on lay-up by Shevon Gibbons with eight minutes to go. Bryant would then expand their lead by 10 when Fogarty hit a jumper with five minutes to go. The Falcons would then cut the lead to two after a three-point play from Gibbons.

Bryant would close the half on an 8-2 spurt to take a 38-30 halftime lead. The spurt was keyed by jumpers from Lauren Rubenoff (New Hartford, Conn.) and Fogarty.

The second half Bentley outscored the Bulldogs 22 to 6 to open the half and they never looked back. Using five second half three's, Bentley continued to score inside, making 58.3 percent from the floor in the half.  Shannon Kirawan's three with 15:51 left gave the Falcon's the lead for good at 45-44. 

Shevon Gibbons led Bentley with 29 points and added 13 rebounds while Kirwan finished with 18 points - including 4 three-point field goals.