DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Behind three players that scored at least 18 points, women's basketball overcame a 12 point halftime deficit to top No. 22 Benedictine College, 88-74. The Bears (11-3) trailed 44-32 at the half and by as many as 16 with 16:11 showing on the clock during the second half. However, they would outscore the Ravens (11-2) by a 49-19 margin over the final 16-plus minutes to wind up on the winning side of the 14 point game.
In the process of the comeback victory, Alex Pohl poured in 18 points becoming the 27th player in SSU women's basketball history to reach the 1,000 point mark. She now sits at 1,005 career points. Diane Abbady ended up leading the team in points (19) and rebounds (17), as she finished with her second straight double-double and third of the season. Alannah Sheets, who is the next closest player to the 1,000 point mark, also finished with 18 points. She now has 948 points after today's game.
The Bears got in a 5-0 hole of the bat, but took the lead at 14-13 with a layup by Erin Dailey with 11:16 to play in the first half. Benedictine would tie the game at 20 and take a 22-21 lead that was quickly erased on an Abbady layup with 7:39 left in the opening half. The Ravens made a 6-0 run but threes by Kara Long and Sheets tied the game at 29. The game would remain that way until there was 4:37 to play in the half. However, those four-plus minutes would see the Ravens go on a 15-3 run to close the half and take a 12 point lead into the locker room.
Benedictine's largest lead of the game came with just over 16 minutes to play after a layup made the score 55-39. The Bears were able to cut the deficit under 10, 58-50, with 14:25 to play after a jumper by Schera Sampson, who also hit two free throws on the previous possession to make it a 10 point contest. When that run started, the Bears trailed 12, 58-46 with 15:07 to play. Just under three minutes later, the Bears had taken a 61-58 lead with 11:36 remaining. After a jumper by Abbady gave the Bears the lead during that stretch, they would never trail again.
SSU would watch its lead grow to eight, 78-70, with just over four minutes showing on the clock. The Bears would then put the game away for good as they held the Ravens to no points over the next minute and a half. During that time, the Bears went on a 6-0 run which included four free throws. The Bears would stretch their lead to 15 with a pair of free throws by Abby Feuchter, making the score 88-73, before the Ravens made one free throw attempt to finish out the 88-74 lost.
The Bears finished the game with a 43-percent shooting percentage (31-of-72) while Benedictine shot 26-of-64 (40 percent) from the field. Led by a 4-of-5 effort from three from Sheets, the Bears were 6-of-16 from distance.
Wednesday morning's contest marked the second straight game that Abbady and Sampson recorded double-doubles in the same game. Sampson finished the contest with 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
In her 1,000 point milestone game, Pohl went 10-of-12 from the free throw line and 4-of-7 from the field. Her free throw shooting helped the Bears go 20-of-25 from the line while Benedictine got to the free throw line just 17 times, making 14 of those attempts. She was also one of four players with at least three assists. Feuchter led the team with four.
The Bears will be back in action Friday morning in another 10 a.m. game. The game will pit them against Warner Southern in their final game at the Daytona Beach Shootout. That will also mark a close to the 2012 portion of the schedule and the final non-conference game of the season.
