Nov. 24, 2009
Box Score
EASTON, Pa. - The Lafayette women's basketball returned home looking to snap a brief, two-game slide by handing St. Bonaventure its first loss of the season. Unfortunately, things did not fall the Leopards' way as they dropped a 58-38 decision to the Bonnies on Tuesday night.
The Leopards (1-4) were nearly evenly matched with St. Bonaventure (5-0) in field goal percentage and three-point percentage, but the Bonnies held a definitive edge in rebounds (35-24) and forced 17 Lafayette turnovers. They also held a 20-point advantage over the Leopards in points in the paint (32-12).
Junior LaKeisha Wright led the Lafayette offense with 13 points. Classmate Lauren Jackson chipped in 11 to go along with her career-high four assists.
The Leopards jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead, aided in part by five points from Jackson, including a trey less than four minutes into the action. That three-pointer marked the only basket from beyond the arc for the Leopards all night.
Jackson drained a jumper at 14:22 to keep Lafayette ahead by five (13-8) and a fastbreak layup from Samantha Jordan made it a 15-10 Leopard lead with less than 12 minutes to play in the opening half.
Dana Mitchell cut that lead to three (19-16) with a basket at the 7:53 mark and Megan Van Tatenhove made it a one-point game (21-20), the closest the Bonnies had been all game, with a jumper with more than five minutes remaining.
Alaina Walker's fastbreak layup handed St. Bonaventure its first lead of the night at 22-21. That basket sparked a 10-0 Bonnies run that upped their lead to double digits (31-21) and they took a 31-23 advantage at halftime.
St. Bonaventure maintained a 10-point lead (35-25) three minutes into the second half and increased that margin to 15, 40-25, at 14:20.
Those points were part of a 12-2 St. Bonaventure run which opened the second half and made it 43-27 with less than 12 minutes remaining.
Elizabeth Virgin's jumper at the eight-minute mark made it a 14-point contest (45-31) and two Jackson free throws at 6:38 made the score 45-33.
Less than a minute later, a Jackson basket brought the lead back down to 10 points (45-35) but that was as close as the Leopards would get as the Bonnies went on to the 20-point win.
The Leopards continue their three-game homestand on Saturday with a 1 p.m. game against Liberty.
Postgame Notes:
- Head coach Tammy Smith used her third starting lineup this season, as sophomore Alexandra Serowoky started in place of Amanda Smith.
- LaKeisha Wright and Lauren Jackson combined for 15 of the Leopards' 23 first-half points
