December 2, 2006

BRYANT WOMEN DEFEAT UMASS LOWELL 68-48 SATURDAY

Erin Murphy tallied 12 points in Bryant's win at UMass Lowell Saturday.

LOWELL, Mass. -  Joanna Skiba (Providence, RI) scored 14 points and Lauren Rubenoff (New Hartford, Conn.) and Erin Murphy (Albany, NY) each added 12 points to help lead the Bryant University women's basketball team to its fifth win in six games as the Bulldogs rolled past UMass Lowell, 68-48 at Costello Gym in Lowell, Mass.  

The Bulldogs took advantage of poor shooting by the host River Hawks in building a 27-11 lead at the half and withstood a valiant second half surge to pull away for the win. 

Everything went right for Bryant (5-1, 3-1 Northeast-10) in the first half.  An air-tight zone defense caused many problems for the River Hawks offensively.  The Bulldogs held UMass Lowell without a field goal in the first 12 minutes in racing out to a quick 14-2 lead.

Despite turning the ball over 14 times, Bryant stretched its lead to 27-9 on a Murphy three-point bucket with a little over four minutes remaining in the half and closed strong as Rubenoff and Skiba each hit a pair of free throws and Murphy canned another three to take a 27-11 lead into the locker room.

UMass Lowell (1-4, 0-2 Northeast-10) made just 3 of 27 shots from the floor (10.7 percent) and were out-rebounded by the Bulldogs, 26 to 13.

In the second half, Bryant would surge ahead 37-13 following a three from O'Keefe at the top of the key.  But the bucket seemed to finally wake up the Lowell offense as the hosts would outscore Bryant 13-0 during a five minute stretch, getting three's from Jen O'Rourke and Revital Carmon to pull to within eleven (37-26). 

But just as they did in the first half, Bryant would answer the River Hawks with a 17-4 run of their own to thwart any chance of a comeback.  A pair of three's by Skiba and O'Keefe stretched Bryant's lead back to 46-29 and Adrianne Mayshar (West Boylston, Mass.) scored in the paint and the Bulldogs cruised from there, allowing coach Mary Burke to empty the bench. 

Bryant shot 44.7 percent from the floor in the game as the Bulldogs outrebounded UML, 38 to 30.  Bryant made 20 of 24 free throws in the game.

Bryant will travel to Bentley College Tuesday night for a 5:30 p.m. game at the Dana Center in Waltham, Mass.