AMHERST, N.Y. – A strong defensive effort by women's basketball allowed them to move to 3-0 on the young season with a 57-39 win over Daemen College (6-1) Sunday afternoon in the final game of the opening weekend. The Bears held Daemen to under 28-percent percent shooting and 11.8-percent from three. SSU also pulled down twice as many rebounds, holding a 56-28 edge in that category.
Coming off the bench, Diane Abbady pulled down a game-high 19 rebounds and scored a game-high 18 points in the win. She was the only Bears' player to score in double figures for the game. Schera Sampson also brought down 15 rebounds on Sunday afternoon.
The Bears never trailed Sunday afternoon. The latest the game was even at a two-point margin was with 9:05 remaining in the opening half when the score was 15-13. Shawnee State would take an 11-point lead into the break. Abbady would handle the offensive load in the opening half as she scored 13 points off the bench going 4-of-6 from the field and making five of her seven free throw attempts. Her contributions off the bench were a huge part of the Bears' bench outscoring Daemen by 20 points, 23-3.
After allowing just 22 points in the opening 20 minutes, the Bears were even better in the second half as they allowed just 17 Daemen points. The hosts would score their 30th point of the game with 11:43 to play in the second half when the score was 44-30. SSU's best defensive stretch of the game came over the next 5:55, when Daemen scored just three points during that stretch.
Shawnee State did not allow a single point to the Daemen bench during the second half of play and with the huge edge in rebounding, which was 32-11 in favor of the Bears during the second half, Shawnee State outscored the hosts 12-5 on second chance points.
In addition to Abbady's scoring off the bench, the Bears got nine points from Alannah Sheets and eight points from Alex Pohl. Kara Long and Sampson each added seven points. All four of those players started, while the fifth player in the starting lineup, Abby Feuchter, dished out eight assists in the victory.
The Bears will now be off until next Friday, November 9, when they take part in the Georgetown Invitational. They will open that weekend with a game against Trevecca Nazarene on Friday at 6 p.m. and play their second game that Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. Mid-Continent.
