PORTSMOUTH, Ohio -- This
time it was Toni Burney.
The University of Saint
Francis junior burned the 16th-ranked Shawnee State
University Bears with 3 3-pointers and the University of
Saint Francis broke away for a 68-52 win in the Shawnee
State Wendy's Classic on Saturday afternoon.
In other games this
season it has been Julie Seiss. It's been Marie Kaufmann.
It's been Jamika Banks. It's been Jenny Richards. But
against SSU, it was Burney with an 8-0 run of her own over a
2-minute span that vaulted USF to its 12th consecutive win.
"We put her position
to get some shots down the stretch and she really came up
big," USF coach Gary Andrews said. "Her teammates set some
solid screens and then Toni knocked them down. Couldn't have
been better timing because up until she hit those shots, it
was still anybody's game."
"We didn't do a bad
job on defense, either," Andrews added after the Lady
Cougars held SSU scoreless in the final 3 minutes, 52
seconds to end the Bears' winning streak at 11 games. USF
heads into 2008 with a 14-1 record and back into conference
play on January 2 with a home game against Grace. USF has
tied the mark for the fifth longest winning streak in USF
history.
"They came into this
game averaging 78 points a game, so to hold them to 52
points is quite an accomplishment," Andrews noted. "They are
really good."
"We played with them,
but we didn't have a great shooting night, part of which you
have to give their defense credit," SSU coach Robin
Hagen-Smith said. But that wasn't the total story.
"Amazin',"
Hagen-Smith said regarding the rebounding difference --
57-30 in favor of USF. "That was the story right there."
On Friday night the
Bears, 11-2, outrebounded Notre Dame University by 25 and
won 90-60.
Burney finished with 23
points and Marie Kaufmann added 22 for USF, which is No.
3 in the NAIA Top 25. Burney was 5-for-8 from 3-point
range and was the rebounding tri-leader with 8. Kaufmann
and Jess Hathaway also grabbed 8 rebounds. USF outscored
SSU 17-2 on second-chance points.
Burney hit her first
3-pointer with 4:24 to play giving USF a 54-50 lead with
4:25 left in the game. After Becky Babione hit a jumper
to pull SSU within 54-52 with 3:56 to play, Burney added
back-to-back 3-pointers pushing USF in front 60-52 with
3:05 to play. Kaufmann's jumper boosted the USF lead to
62-52 with 2:23 to play.
While Burney
bombed away to give the Lady Cougars a comfortable
cushion in just over two minutes, SSU misfired on its
last nine shots, four from 3-point range.
"We were able to
rotate our players and keep them fairly fresh," Andrews
said. "It paid off late in the game."
"You would have
thought (USF) would have been tired down the stretch
after playing overtime on Friday night, but I thought we
looked a little tired down the stretch," Hagen-Smith
said.
USF led by as
many as 11 points early in the second half, but the
Bears roared back to grab a 48-47 lead on a Mallory
Albers 3-pointer with 8:55 to play. SSU got the ball
back after a USF miss and turnover, but Babione missed a
jumper with 7:31 to play. Kaufmann's jumper restored
USF's lead 49-48 with 7:21 to play.
SSU leads the
series 6-2, though the loss snapped a 4-game losing skid
for USF against the Bears including an 80-65 loss in the
1999 NAIA Division II Championship Game.
Box Score
