Sunday, November 20, 2011

Career Days From Dixon, Ortega Keep Bonnies Perfect

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – Sophomores CeCe Dixon and Doris Ortega set scoring career highs Sunday afternoon as the St. Bonaventure women's basketball team (4-0) remained perfect with a 79-55 win over Morgan State (1-2) in a foul-filled home-opening contest.

Dixon led all scorers with 15 points off the bench – 10 of which came in the second half. Ortega finished with 13 points as she also set a career high with seven made free throws. Sophomore Chelsea Bowker tallied 10 points to conclude the day as the only other double-figure Bona scorer as the Bonnies put forth a complete team effort in winning their seventh-straight home opener.





All 11 players on the Bonaventure roster logged game action, and all 11 scored, marking the first time that many Bonnies have scored in a game since last December in a 74-41 win over Canisius.

With St. Bonaventure leading by just four, 36-32, early in the second half, the Bonnies rattled off an extended 17-5 run to open up a 53-37 advantage after an Armelia Horton lay-in with 11:50 left. From there, the Brown and White extended their cushion more, leading by as much as 26 in the second half en route to a season-best 79 points.

The two teams combined to commit 42 fouls – 24 on Morgan State and 18 on SBU. For the second game in a row, Bonaventure shot the ball well from the free throw line, going 29-of-36 for an 80.6-percent clip.

This was St. Bonaventure's fourth game in nine days in four different cities, and Crowley went to his bench early as 10 different Bonnies played within the game's first eight minutes.

Dekeisha Mathis led Morgan State with 12 points as she connected on 4-of-8 3-point attempts. Eight of MSU's 14 total field goals came from 3-point range as it concluded the game shooting just 28.6 percent (14-49) from the field. It is the second consecutive game that the Bona defense has held its opponent below 30-percent shooting as West Virginia shot 28.1 percent Friday.

This is the sixth time in program history that St. Bonaventure has started a season 4-0, and five of those occasions have come in the last seven years.

The Bonnies dominated the glass, finishing with a +30 advantage on the boards, 54-24, and turned 21 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points compared with just three for the Lady Bears.

Leading scorers Jessica Jenkins (17 ppg) and Megan Van Tatenhove (15 ppg) netted just five and four points, respectively, but it didn't matter as the Bona bench accounted for 40 points, just one day removed from scoring only four at WVU.

Bonaventure will get some much-needed rest as it has a week off before returning to action at home next Sunday against Delaware and one of the best players in the nation in Elena Delle Donne. Tipoff against the Blue Hens is slated for 1 p.m. from the Reilly Center.

GAME NOTES: Junior Jordan McGee, sophomore Ashley Zahn and freshman Tatiana Wilson all scored their first points of the season as McGee tallied six and Zahn and Wilson contributed two … Horton finished with nine points, while junior Alaina Walker scored eight … senior Jennie Ashton tied a career high by scoring five … nine different Bona players scored in the first 12 minutes of the game … the win avenged a loss to Morgan State last year, and is already the third vi

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