March 14, 2008

No. 7 BRYANT FALLS TO No. 2 STONEHILL COLLEGE, 67-58, IN NCAA NORTHEAST REGIONAL FIRST-ROUND ACTION

Senior captain Lynne-Ann Kokoski scored six points, grabbing five rebounds and  dishing out seven assists in the Bulldogs' season-ending loss to Stonehill Friday.

PHILADELPHIA - The No. 7 Bryant University women's basketball team couldn't hold on to a nine-point halftime lead in Friday afternoon's NCAA Northeast Regional First Round action, falling to Northeast-10 Conference rival No. 2 Stonehill College, 67-58 at Holy Family University.

The Bulldogs set the pace for the contest's first half early and with a fluency they've had throughout the 2007-08 postseason. Bryant (20-12) scored the first bucket of the game 1:15 in, when senior captain Lynne-Ann Kokoski (Hatfield, Mass.) fed the ball to sophomore standout Kelsey O'Keefe (Warren, Mass.) just outside the paint. With nowhere to go, O'Keefe turned to rookie Siamone Bennett (Newburgh, NY) on the post for the layup.

It was with this seamlessness that the Bulldogs took an early 11-6 lead after five minutes, a run capped off when sophomore shooter Courtney Schermerhorn (Lowell, Mass.) hit from beyond the arc.

Stonehill (27-4), whose three-point game has been a problem for the Bulldogs in the past, was completely ineffective from downtown in the frame, going 0-for-12 from three-point range and just 7-of-31 from the field.

The Skyhawks climbed back to within three, 17-14, on a pair of Kristen McWhirter free throws at the 12:34 mark, but went nearly eight minutes without a basket toward the end of the frame. The bucketless steak allowed Bryant to open up a 28-18 lead, when junior Cara Johnson (Endicott, NY) stole a pass at half court for an uncontested fast break layup.

The Bulldogs would take a 30-21 advantage into the intermission, led by six points from Johnson and sophomore Jamie Campbell (Springfield, Mass.).

But as Stonehill died by the three in the first half, the second frame was a different story.

The Skyhawks opened the half on a 14-8 run, highlighted by the first of five second-frame treys, to cut Bryant's lead to 38-35.

Kristin Mraz (Johnstown, NY) nailed a three from the right side with 13:30 to play after O'Keefe scored on a pull-up jumper to re-up the Bulldogs' lead to 43-35.

But Stonehill took over from there and never looked back.

A three-point play from Erika Stupinski followed by an Ashley Caiafa half-court steal and consequent layup narrowed Bryant's lead to 43-40 at the 13:18 mark. Bennett found herself in foul trouble, receiving her fourth whistle with 12:19 still to play. Caiafa found her own rebound after a missed three to come within one point, 43-42. And then, with 11:40 showing on the clock, Stonehill's big forward Kelsey Simonds scored a layup that gave the Skyhawks their first lead of the contest, 44-43.

The two teams traded leads for the next four minutes, until Stupinski kick-started Stonehill's pullaway from downtown, moving the tally to 49-47 in the Skyhawks' favor.

Bryant helped the Skyhawks' cause, going scoreless for five full minutes while Stonehill upped its lead to 55-47.

An O'Keefe trey with 5:13 to go knocked the home team's lead to five, but not for long. Just seconds later, Caiafa responded with a 3-pointer of her own to go back up eight, 58-50.

O'Keefe knocked down her second three of the game with 2:15 remaining, but as Bennett fouled out just inside the two-minute mark, the Bulldogs wouldn't have enough to even the score in the waning seconds.

Simonds scored back-to-back layups to go up 64-55, while three more points from Bethany Tighe put the Skyhawks at 67 points. Schermerhorn drained from three-point land with 14 seconds, but it couldn't keep Bryant's NCAA hopes alive, as the Bulldogs fell, 67-58.

Eleven Bryant turnovers marred the second half, and the Bulldogs dropped that category to the only slightly more careful Skyhawks, 16-11. Stonehill ended the day just 5-for-27 from three-point range, but shot 54.5 percent from the floor in the second frame for a 39 percent clip on the afternoon. Bryant landed 5-of-14 from beyond the arc, but was equally as effective near the paint in the contest, hitting at 40 percent.

Both teams knocked down just half of their freebies, but only Stonehill found scoring relief at the line with 12 points (12-of-24 to Bryant's 3-of-6). The Skyhawks outrebounded the Bulldogs, 43-40, while registering four blocks to Bryant's one.

O'Keefe scored a game-high 19 points in the season-ending effort, adding on a game-high nine boards. Campbell also scored in the double-figures, chipping in 10 with a trio of rebounds. Four Skyhawks hit double-digits from the floor, with Simonds leading the way with 16 points and six boards. Joining her in two-figure scoring were Tighe (14), Stupinski (12) and Caiafa (12).

Friday's contest was a rematch of the Northeast-10 Conference Championship game, played last Sunday, March 9 - a game the Skyhawks also won, 90-79. Friday's contest was the fourth meeting between the squads this year and the third in less than a month.

The loss also marked Bryant's final game as a member of the Division II ranks. The Bulldogs begin their move to the Division I Northeast Conference next year will be ineligible for the postseason until becoming full NEC members in 2012-13.