By: Isaiah Blakely
The St. Bonaventure Bonnies (2-1) defeated their rival the Canisius Golden Griffins (0-2) 100-94 in triple overtime in the longest game the Bonnies women’s basketball program has played since 1980.
Junior Danielle Migliore was the leading scorer for the Bonnies with 19 points while junior D’Jhai Patterson-Ricks led the Golden Griffins with 24 points.
This was a game of runs. Each team had a double-digit lead before the fourth quarter. There were 13 ties and nine lead changes.
It all started with redshirt-junior Bree Paulson hitting one of her five three pointers to open the scoring up for the Bonnies. It was a back and forth start to the quarter, but Canisius went on a 7-1 run to take a 16-8. Junior Shannon Conely scored four of her career-high 23 points off the bench during that run.
Migliore and freshman Claudia Del Moral both hit three pointers to spark a 7-2 run of their own to keep the Bonnies in the game. Del Moral led the Bonnies in assists, she had nine assists and zero turnovers.
Canisius out rebounded the Bonnies 51-45 and that was in part due to senior Sara Hinriksdottir’s 14 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Danielle Sanderlin led the game in rebounds, she had eight points and 18 rebounds. Their offensive rebounds and put back layups to start the second quarter gave Canisius a 12-point lead which was their biggest of the game.
Sophomore Emily Calabrese scored 18 points and 10 rebounds helped make sure the Golden Griffins lead didn’t extend. A Calabrese layup helped sparked a 13-2 run in the final four minutes of the quarter which was capped off by freshman Asianae Johnson hitting a three-pointer to tie the game right before the second quarter buzzer.
In the third quarter the Bonnies picked up where they left off. Migliore hits a three pointer to start the half. The Bonnies slowly extended their lead throughout the quarter. They took their biggest lead after Paulson sinks another three pointer. Paulson ended the game with 17 points. The Bonnies went into the fourth quarter up 11.
The Golden Griffins came out firing in the fourth quarter. The Golden Griffins started the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run including a pair of three pointers by Patterson-Ricks and Hinriksdottir. Conley added six more points of her own to cap off a 12-2 run by Canisius to cut the Bonnies lead to two.
The fourth quarter goes back and forth, and with under three minutes to go Paulson hits a three pointer to give the Bonnies the lead. A Sanderlin layup and Conely jumper gives Canisius a one-point lead with a little over a minute to go. Free throws by Paulson and Migliore give the Bonnies a two-point lead with five seconds left. Canisius gives the ball to their senior Hinriksdottir and she scores a layup to force overtime.
Overtime starts with three-pointers by Paulson and Canisius senior Maria Welch. Canisius holds a three-point lead with two minutes to go before freshman Deja Francis hits her first bucket of the game. It was a three pointer to tie the game with two minutes left. Migliore made two free throws but Conely ties the game with another jump shot to force double overtime.
Double overtime was a lot of free throws to start. Patterson-Ricks hit a three pointer to give Canisius the lead with a little over two minutes to go in the period. A Francis free throw and Johnson layup tied the game up with a under a minute to go. After a Hinriksdottir miss Paulson had a shot to win the game but missed, and these two teams headed to triple overtime.
In third overtime period junior Dajah Logan scored five of her 12 points. Including a layup and a foul to put the Bonnies up three. Logan then grabbed an offensive rebound and made a layup to put the Bonnies up five with about thirty seconds to go.
Francis also had five of her nine points in triple overtime, and her free throws with 17 seconds left secured the win for the Bonnies.
The Bonnies had five players score in double figures and coach Jesse Fleming talked about the group effort.
“They desperately wanted that win,” said Fleming. “They made some plays. I thought it was a one-through-nine effort where somebody kept making a play to help us win.”
The Bonnies next opponent is Saturday at home against Hofstra.
Picture Courtesy: GoBonnies
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