FAIRFIELD, CONN. (February 7, 2015)—Katie Shepard (Lone Tree, Colo.) led the Pioneers to a thrilling overtime win over the Bryant University Bulldogs with six overtime points Saturday afternoon in the William H. Pitt Center. The senior guard neared a double-double with 13 points and eight rebounds, while Adaysha Williams (LaCrosse, Wis.) led the game with 19 points shooting 50.0% (8-16) from the floor. With the win, SHU improves to 11-9 on the season and 6-4 in Northeast Conference play, while the Bulldogs fall to 15-7 over and 8-3 against conference opponents.
2:32 into the overtime period, with the shot clock winding down Shepard landed the first basket of a triple giving SHU the advantage. Bryant managed two points from Winder, but Haines sunk one from under the basket improving SHU's lead to 67-64. Rucker hit one of two free throws making it a two point before Shepard drove the lane to slightly widen the leading to 69-65. Rucker found the basket again for a layup making it a two-point game again. But Shepard, who tallied six points in overtime, put the final nail in the coffin making one of two from the line with eight seconds left clinching the win for the Pioneers.
The Pioneers opened the game on a nine-point tear while holding Bryant scoreless through the first three minutes of the game. The Bulldogs answered with a six-point streak that was snapped by a Gabrielle Washington (Mesa, Ariz.) layup.
Tiersa Winder landed a jumper at the 14-minute mark to cut SHU's lead to three points, 11-8, before Sacred Heart turned the heat back on with an 8-2 run featuring four points from Shepard for a 19-10 lead.
Coming out of the under 12 media timeout, Shelby Hickey (Littleton, Colo.) and Washington combined for four unanswered points to extend SHU's lead to 23-14. After Bryant missed its first six shots from three-point range, Melissa Corraro landed one from the left side cutting into Sacred Heart's lead, but Lerae Ettienne (Kensington, Md.) and Hickey answered with consecutive lay-ins fending off the strong Bulldogs team, and sparking a 10-2 SHU run giving the Pioneers a 15-point lead, 34-19, and forcing Bryant Head Coach Mary Burke to call a timeout with five minutes remaining in the half.
Williams put six points on the board for SHU in the last three minutes of the half to maintain Sacred Heart's good lead 44-30 at the buzzer.
Bryant put up the first four points of the second half holding the Pioneers scoreless for nearly two minutes before Sacred Heart Head Coach Jessica Mannetti called a timeout to rally the team back to first-half form. SHU finally got on the board in the second half as Ettienne grabbed an o-board and banked it in extending the Pioneers' lead back to 10 points, 46-36.
Ettienne's was one of just two made Pioneer baskets in the first eight minutes of the half, but tough defense held the Bulldogs at bay as SHU maintained a 49-40 lead at the 11:57 media timeout. Shepard snapped Sacred Heart's nearly six-minute scoring drought with a triple, but that didn't slow down Bryant, who cut SHU's lead to just two points on a Breanna Rucker lay-in, 52-50 with just under nine minutes to play. Moments later Winder evened the score at 52 on the fast break as the Pioneers' second-half struggles continued shooting 14.3% (3-21) from the floor.
Washington broke the tie in SHU's favor sinking a layup with the and-one basket. Williams extended the lead to five points weaving through the defense and finding the layup.
Bryant minimized the Sacred Heart lead to two-points again, but Hannah Kimmel (Harpursville, N.Y.) came up big with a trey from the left wing with 3:30 left in the game. With just under a minute remaining a called foul on SHU sent Rucker to the line for two where she gave Bryant its first lead of the game, 61-60.
Pulling down a rebound, Williams fed Katherine Haines under the basket who dished it back to Williams for the lay-up to put the Pioneers back on top 62-61 with 51 seconds to play. With 40 seconds remaining, Winder picked up a foul and went to the line for two where she missed the first but landed the second leveling the score at 62. Having just 8.5 seconds, the Bulldogs couldn't make a shot fall as the game went into overtime.
Sacred Heart is back in action Monday night at home on Coach Bike Court when they host the Wagner Seahawks at 7:00 p.m.
