By: Adam Gorski
The Canisius women’s basketball team bounced back from their discouraging season opening loss to Buffalo with impressive showings on the road against Binghamton and St. Bonaventure — unfortunately, they just couldn’t finish them off.
A 25–7 run to end the game gave the Bearcats a 73–56 win over the Griffs on Sunday, while a 7–0 run over the final three minutes propelled the Bonnies to a 67–59 victory over Canisius on Wednesday.
A back-and-forth affair in Binghamton saw neither team jump out to a lead of more than five points over the course of the first three quarters, as with 7:11 to play, a free throw from senior Kayla Jackson put the Griffs ahead by a point, 49–48.
However, the Bearcats re-took the lead thanks to a Clare Traeger three-pointer shortly thereafter and did not look back, as her triple sparked a 17–1 run over the next four minutes to blow the game open.
"I thought we showed 30 minutes of really focused play where defensively we were locked in,” Griffs head coach Sahar Nusseibeh told GoGriffs.com. “Offensively, we took steps forward being the aggressor for the first three quarters as well. Unfortunately, Binghamton's run at the start of the fourth was too much to overcome considering our lack of depth available today."
Doing the damage throughout the night for the Griffs was sophomore Dani Haskell, whose career-high 25 points paced her side. Haskell is averaging 15 points per game through the first three contests, which leads the team.
Jackson finished a point short of a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.
“Dani [Haskell] was tremendous in taking the reins of our offense today,” Nusseibeh said of the sophomore to GoGriffs.com. “Her response after a few mistakes early in the game shows firsthand her coachability and maturity as just a sophomore. It is extremely impressive and something we will continue to challenge her with because she is capable."
In Wednesday’s matchup with the Bonnies, a similar script unfolded.
The Griffs jumped out to their largest lead of the game, 18–11, late in the first quarter after freshman Cheyenne Stubbs canned a jumper, but the Bonnies fought back to take their first lead since the early minutes of the game at halftime, 29–27.
A back-and-forth second half unfolded until the final three minutes of the game, when Shaunae Brown nailed a 3-pointer to make it a 60–59 Bonnies advantage. From there, though, Canisius would go scoreless the rest of the way while St. Bonaventure edged away.
"I am extremely proud of our team and their compete level for 40 minutes,” Nusseibeh told GoGriffs.com “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 burned out a little bit and St. Bonaventure had more bodies to work with, but I am really proud of the team."
Brown led the way with 16 points, a much-needed breakout for the senior who scored just seven points combined over the first two matchups. Erika Joseph paced close behind with 14, while freshman Lydia Gattozzi had eight points off the bench.
Canisius returns to the Koessler Athletic Center with two home games, first on Saturday as they face off with Colgate at 1 p.m. and follow that up with a Tuesday matchup against Detroit Mercy at 7 p.m.
Comments