Women's Basketball Returns Home to Face Iona

Women's Basketball 2/27/2010 2:54:00 AM Canisius College Athletics

Defense and Second-Half Outburst Ends Losing Streak for Women's Basketball

Forcing 25 turnovers and scoring 39 second-half points, including 6-for-7 shooting on 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes, the Canisius College women's basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak with a 54-40 victory over Saint Peter's at the Koessler Athletic Center on Friday night. The Golden Griffins are now 11-17 overall and 6-11 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Seniors Ellie Radke and Brittané Russell each scored 12 points in the game with Russell also grabbing eight rebounds and recording six steals. Freshman Ashley Durham added nine points while junior Micayla Drysdale had six points — hitting two 3-pointers during the game-breaking run during the second half.

“Both teams struggled offensively in the first half, but I felt we were taking good shots,” Canisius coach Terry Zeh said. “We carried over that defensive effort from the opening 20 minutes to the second half, and then the shots started falling.”

The teams combined for 13 field goals in the first half while committing 19 turnovers. The Peahens went up 13-7 after scoring five straight points — a layup from Quiana Porter and three-point play from Natasha Morris. The Griffs cut the lead to two points on a two separate occasions, but Saint Peter's (10-18, 6-11 MAAC) pushed its lead back to six on a layup from Charlene Riddick and two free throws from Morris. A jumper from Russell made it 19-15 at intermission.

Canisius shot 52.2 percent in the second half, making its first five 3-pointers. Down 26-22 after a layup from Jynae Judson, the Griffs went on a 19-2 run during the next eight minutes to go up 41-28. Canisius broke open the game with eight points in just over a minute – getting a layup from Russell and back-to-back 3-pointers from Drysdale (one from the left wing and one from the right wing) to go up 33-26 with 11:57 left.

Freshman Ashley Durham scored five straight points and a three-point play from Russell capped the run to put Canisius up by 13 points. During that stretch, Canisius held Saint Peter's to 1-for-11 shooting and forced four turnovers. The Peahens never cut the Canisius lead to single digits for the rest of the game as Canisius was 6-for-10 from the free-throw line in the final 90 seconds.

Morris led Saint Peter's with 12 points while Judson had 11 points and seven rebounds. Riddick pulled down a game-high 10 boards.

Canisius closes out the regular season on Sunday, hosting Fairfield on Senior Day. Game time is set for 2 p.m. with Senior Day activities set to begin at 1:45 p.m.

Notes: Canisius extended its NCAA record of consecutive games with a 3-pointer to 482 games on a 3-pointer by Radke midway through the first half… Russell extended her streak of games with a 3-pointer to 25 straight games on a 3-pointer with just over two minutes remaining in the game… Canisius won for the seventh consecutive time against Saint Peter's in the Koessler Athletic Center… The teams split the season series for the third consecutive season… Russell tied the program record by playing in her 122nd game, matching the record of Amanda Cavo… Russell also moved into seventh place on the all-time scoring list and now has 1,378 points… Canisius improved to 4-9 when trailing at the half... Canisius scored 24 points off turnovers, the most since getting 29 at Duquesne in a double overtime on Dec. 16.

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Players Mentioned

#12 Amanda Cavo: G; 5' 9"; Senior

#23 Micayla Drysdale: G; 5' 9"; Junior

#22 Ashley Durham: G; 5' 5"; Freshman

#35 Ellie Radke: F; 6' 0"; Senior

Players Mentioned

#12 Amanda Cavo
: 5' 9"; Senior
: G

#23 Micayla Drysdale
: 5' 9"; Junior
: G

#22 Ashley Durham
: 5' 5"; Freshman
: G

#35 Ellie Radke
: 6' 0"; Senior
: F