By: Colton Pankiewicz
After losing at home last week despite holding a double digit lead, Canisius kept their foot on the gas pedal for all four quarters against their Little Three rival, St.
Bonaventure, leading to a 85-47 victory.
Junior guard Dani Haskell showed why she was named to the Preseason All-MAAC Second team, leading the Griffs with 16 points, going 4-6 from deep, and adding a career-high 7 assists.
“The fact that she had seven assists is probably what I'm most proud of. We know she can score the ball but today she was a facilitator, and that's something she's capable of every night,” head coach Sahar Nusseibeh said in her post-game interview.
Canisius never once trailed the Bonnies, which is mostly credited to how efficient they were offensively, shooting 60.9% from three, and finishing with a 54.7% field goal percentage.
The Griffs benefited from strong performances outside of their starting five, totaling 39 points and a field goal percentage of 72.2% off the bench.
Much of the Griffs success off the bench came from freshman Sisi Eleko, who finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds playing 17 minutes.
The Griffs arguably had their best run of the year, outscoring St. Bonaventure 21-2 in just a six minute span thanks to a burst of six points from both Haskell, and sophomore Cheyenne Stubbs, as well as another five from senior Jane McCauley.
The third quarter has been Canisius’ worst quarter of play this season, often allowing opponents to go on runs that either diminished the lead that the Griffs had or extended the deficit they were already in. For example, Canisius led Albany last week 27-19 at the half before being outscored 19-7 in the third quarter alone, ultimately being the difference maker in the gut-wrenching loss.
Tonight, Canisius made the third quarter their best quarter, outscoring the Bonnies 29-14, and sucking the air out of St. Bonaventure.
“This week in practice we looked inward. We talked about looking in the mirror
individually and collectively so as players, as coaches, then as a team. Everything in
practice leading up to today was not necessarily about St. Bonaventure, it was about Canisius,” said Nusseibeh.
This is just the second time under head coach Sahar Nusseibeh that the Griffs have had an 85 point outing, the only other time being last year, ironically enough against the other Little Three rival, Niagara, in a game that they lost in overtime. This also marks
the first time the Bonnies have allowed an opponent to score 85 points this year.
Canisius, now 3-5, travels to Youngstown State December 10th looking to hand the Penguins their first home loss of the season, and give themselves their second away