Holding Siena without a field goal for nearly 16 minutes, the Canisius College women's basketball team broke open the game in the first half en route to a 60-48 win in the Koessler Athletic Center on Sunday afternoon. Canisius snaps a three-game losing streak and improves to 6-11 overall and 2-4 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Junior Steph MacDonald scored a season-high 14 points on 6-for-7 shooting, while also recording eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. Sophomore Ashley Durham scored 13 points while senior Micayla Drysdale had 12 points and five assists. Freshman Courtney VandeBovenkamp had eight points and 14 rebounds.

"That was our most complete game of the season. Defensively, we were successful in doing what we were trying to do and offensively, our pace was good," Canisius coach Terry Zeh said. "We completed defensive possessions with rebounds, which were huge for us. We had been playing well defensively, but not getting enough rebounds and allowed teams to score second-chance points."

Siena (7-9, 5-1 MAAC) used the 3-point shooting of Maja Gerlyng to build a 17-11 lead. Gerylng started the game 4-for-5 from behind the arc, making all four of those shots in the opening nine minutes of the half. After Gerylng's fourth 3-pointer, Canisius held the Saints without a field goal for the rest of the half, outscoring Siena 19-2 during the final 11 and a half minutes. The Griffs also scored 18 points off 11 first-half turnovers from the Saints to take a 30-19 halftime lead.

After a slow start to the second half for both teams, the Saints ended their field goal drought of 15:46 with a jumper from Serena Moore to make the score 34-23. The Griffs would extend their lead to 15 points after a layup from MacDonald and jumper from freshman Jamie Ruttle. The Saints scored six straight points in under 30 seconds to get the deficit to single digits. Canisius withstood that run with a reverse layup from Drysdale off an offensive rebound from VandeBovenkamp to get the lead back to 11 points.

Siena made one final run, getting as close as 48-42 after a three-point play from Cristina Centeno with 5:39 left. The Griffs answered again, getting 3-pointers on the left wing on back-to-back possessions from MacDonald and Durham to double the lead to 54-42. The Griffs made 6-of-8 free throws in the final 90 seconds to put the game away.

Gerlyng led all players with 15 points, going 5-for-8 on 3-pointers but 0-for-7 on two-point shots. Centeno had 13 points, all in the second half, but the Griffs held the conference's leading 3-point shooter to 0-for-5 from behind the arc. Canisius also held Moore, the conference's leading scorer, to eight points while Moore had a team-high 10 rebounds.

Canisius hits the road for two games next weekend, starting at Fairfield on Friday. Game time in Alumni Hall is set for 7 p.m.

Notes: Canisius extended its NCAA record of consecutive games with a 3-pointer to 502 games on a 3-pointer by MacDonald on the team's first possession... Canisius has now won four of the last five overall and three straight in the Koessler Athletic Center over Siena... The Griffs had a season-high 17 assists on a season-high 23 made baskets... Freshman Jen Lennox had a block in a game for the 11^th time this season... Drysdale has an assist-turnover ratio of 2.07 in the last 12 games... MacDonald matched a career-high with the five assists... Canisius is now 5-0 when leading or tied at the half... The 11-point halftime lead was the biggest of the season for the Griffs... Canisius had three players reach double figures for the first time since four players had 10 points or more at Cornell on Dec. 19... The 14 rebounds by VandeBovenkamp were the most by a Griff this season and most by a Canisius freshman since Maggie Guidry had 16 two times (Jan. 2 and Feb. 17) during the 1996-97 season.