Shaunae Brown and Erika Joseph recorded career-high point totals, but St. Bonaventure held Canisius scoreless over the final 3:16 to come away with a 67-59 victory in women's non-conference basketball action Wednesday evening at the Reilly Center in Olean, N.Y.
Brown scored 14 of her team-high 16 points in the second half for the Griffs (0-3), while Joseph chipped in with 14 points of her own.
St. Bonaventure (3-1) had four players record a double-digit point total, highlighted by Asianae Johnson's 16 points. Tori Harris added 14 points, while I'yanna Lops logged 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Maddie Dziezgowski had 10 points off the bench.
GAME RECAP
Canisius used a 9-2 run over three-plus minutes in the opening quarter to give the team a seven-point lead, its largest of the contest. Sophomore Dani Haskell hit a three-pointer, freshman Lydia Gattozzi made back-to-back layups while heavily guarded before fellow first-year player Cheyenne Stubbs capped off the run with a jump shot, putting Canisius up 18-11.
St. Bonaventure closed out the final 4:21 of the first half on its own 9-2 run, taking a 29-27 lead into the locker room. The Bonnies held Canisius to just three makes of its 12 shot attempts in the quarter, including a 1-for-6 clip from beyond the arc.
Canisius shot 57.1 percent from the floor in the third quarter, converting on eight of its 14 shot attempts out of the locker room. Brown registered 10 of the Griffs' 19 points in the quarter.
Canisius was held to a 26.7 shooting percentage from the floor in the final quarter. St. Bonaventure outscored the Griffs, 23-13, to solidify its victory. The Bonnies dominated the paint in the last 10 minutes, scoring 16 of its 23 points inside the lane.
Head Coach Sahar Nusseibeh's Postgame Comments
"I am extremely proud of our team and their compete level for 40 minutes. To think of what Buffalo was about a week ago, the growth has been tremendous. The issue is depth on the bench. We have a lot of banged-up kids right now. It was just a matter that with our short bench, we burn out a little bit and St. Bonaventure had more bodies to work with, but I am really proud of the team."
"Erika [Joseph] is someone who is completely bought in and she is reaping the benefits of trusting our staff, trusting the system and trusting her teammates. That's exactly why her performance has been the way it has been. She's been our most efficient player offensively and she's definitely our anchor right now in terms of consistency."
"We got [Shaunae Brown] going this game, which was nice. As coaches, we knew it would come pretty soon. She was locked in from go and we knew she was going to have a really good performance because she's been mentally checked in."
Game Notes
• Wednesday marked the 53rd all-time meeting between the two Western New York rivals. St. Bonaventure improved to 28-25 all-time over the Griffs with the victory.
• With a career-high 12 rebounds, senior Kayla Jackson became the first Griff with consecutive games with at least 11 rebounds since Danielle Sanderlin did so in the first two games of the 2018-19 season.
• Freshmen Athina Lexa and Cheyenne Stubbs each made their first collegiate field goals in the contest.
Up Next
The Griffs will host Colgate on Saturday in the team's home opener. Saturday's contest will mark the team's first home game in nearly a full calendar year (349 days) and will also be the first home game in front of fans in 623 days since the 2019-20 regular season finale against Quinnipiac (March 7, 2020).
For complete coverage of Canisius women's basketball, please follow the Griffs on social media at @GriffsWBB on Instagram and Twitter.
