Bison top Franciscan, 51-39

Andrew Woodley, Sports Information Director

• Box Score

BETHANY, W.Va. (Dec. 29) - The Bethany College women's basketball team managed to earn a 51-39 victory Friday night in the non-conference finale at the Hummel Field House.

The Bison improve to 5-6 overall, while the Barons fall to 0-9 this season.

Bethany forward Kelsea Daugherty finished with a game-high 11 points in the win. She also moved into fifth all-time in school history and sits at 1,447 points, passing former Bison Stephanie Cunningham (1994-99) who had 1,443 points.

Freshman Katie Hart (Lowell, Ohio/Fort Frye) ended the night with a season-high eight points and racked up 11 steals on defense, while classmate Makayla Reynolds (Buckhannon, W.Va./Buckhannon-Upshur) tossed in seven points with eight rebounds.

The Bison limited Franciscan to two points over the first seven minutes of the game, but could only muster five for themselves. The Barons managed to tie the game and knock down a trey to take a 7-5 lead after one period.

Bethany reclaimed the lead and mounted a 12-2 run over the first six minutes of the second quarter, capped off with a layup by junior Taylor Large (Hopwood, Pa./Laurel Highlands), to give the Bison a 17-7 lead and force a timeout with 4:01 left in the first half.

After the Green & White took a 19-10 lead into halftime, the Bison opened up a 19-point lead at 35-16 with 3:52 remaining in the third quarter. Bethany capped off the 16-6 run on a layup by freshman Keyira Golden (Morgantown, W.Va./Morgantown), which was setup by a great pass from classmate Allison Kuhn (Lewisville, Ohio/Monroe Central).

The Bison led by double-digits for the next 12 minutes of the game, before a Baron jump shot with 2:17 remaining in the game made the score 46-37. Freshman Fallon Nicholson (Morgantown, W.Va./Morgantown) essentially put the game away on the ensuing possession when she drained a three pointer to rebuild the Bison lead to 12 with less than two minutes remaining in the contest.

Both teams struggled to find rhythem on offense in the first game following the Christmas break. Franciscan shot 14-for-40 (35 percent), compared to the 20-fo-61 (33 percent) posted by the Bison. Bethany took advantage of 29 Baron turnovers with 21 points directly off of those miscues.

Franciscan's Gaby DeJesus led the Barons with 10 points in the loss.

Bethany will re-enter Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) play on Wednesday, January 3 when they host Saint Vincent at 5:30 p.m.