NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - Iona
College shot 56 percent in the opening 20 minutes, building a 13-point lead and
held off a late Golden Griffin rally to defeat the Canisius College women's
basketball team 77-67 at the Hynes Athletic Center on Sunday afternoon. The
Golden Griffins fall to 8-11 overall and 2-6 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference
Junior
Ashley Durham led Canisius with 18
points, to go along with five assists and six rebounds. Freshman Kayla Hoohuli scored 12 points on
4-for-5 shooting from behind the arc. Sophomore Jamie Ruttle added 12 points while sophomore Courtney VandeBovenkamp had 11 rebounds.
"Our
effort was better than it has been, but it's not where it needs to be for a
40-minute game," Canisius coach Terry
Zeh said. "We turned the ball over more than we wanted and that gave Iona
21 points.
"We'll
take this effort, build on it and continue to get better."
Iona
jumped out to a 19-10 with an 11-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Diana
Hubbard. The Griffs came back with six straight points to cut the Iona lead to
19-16. Damika Martinez then scored eight straight for the Gaels and two free
throws from Suzi Fregosi gave Iona a 29-18 lead. After the second 3-pointer of
the half from Hoohuli and a layup from Durham, would make five straight shots
and six of its last eight en route to shooting 56 percent in the first half and
building a 43-30 halftime lead.
Iona (10-9, 6-2 MAAC) maintained that
double-digit lead for a majority of the second half, until the Griffs made a
late run. Down 71-56, the Griffs scored nine straight points, getting two free
throws from Durham, five points from Ruttle and a layup from Hoohuli to cut the
Iona lead to 71-65. The Griffs got two more defensive stops, but couldn't cash
in offensively as the Gaels put the game away at the free-throw line.
Aleesha
Powell led Iona with 15 points while Suzi Fregosi had 13 points and seven
assists. The Gaels shot 25-for-33 from the free-throw line.
Canisius
returns home for two games in the Koessler Athletic Center next weekend,
starting with Friday's game against Loyola. Tipoff in the first game of a
doubleheader with the Golden Griffin men's basketball team is set for 5 p.m.
Notes: Canisius
lost at Iona for the third consecutive season and for the fifth time in the
last six years... For the 18th time in the last 20 meetings, the game
was decided by more than 10 points... The 11 rebounds for VandeBovenkamp were a
season high... Ruttle reached double figures for a team-high 11th time
this season... Durham had 17 or more points for the third straight game... Hoohuli
made four 3-pointers for the fourth time this season.
