COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Women's Basketball team used a suffocating defensive effort to defeat Franklin & Marshall 48-34 in Centennial Conference action at Helfferich Hall on Wednesday night.
With the win, the Bears improved to 12-8 overall and 8-7 in Centennial Conference action. Meanwhile, the Diplomats fell to 9-10 overall and 4-10 in conference play.
Junior
Chinwe Irondi led the Bears with a double-double behind a game-high 21 points behind going 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 10 rebounds. Senior
Sarah DiLello notched a season-high 11 points behind going 4-of-7 from the field.
Ursinus opened the game with the first six points to take the early advantage and held the Diplomats without a point until the 5:10-mark of the first quarter. The Bears used a pair of three-pointers around a Diplomat made basket to take a 12-4 lead at the 2:07-mark of the first quarter. F&M drew within 12-9 in the final minute before a three-pointer from Smith put the Bears up 15-9 at the first break. The Diplomats cut the deficit down to three points at 16-13 at the 7:17-mark of the second quarter, but the Bears used a 10-3 run to take a 26-16 lead with 1:35 left in the first half. Irondi capped off the first half for the Bears by beating the buzzer with a jumper to make it a 29-19 game at halftime.
The Bears continued to pull away in the third quarter behind their strong defense that did not allow the Diplomats to make a field goal during that entire 10-minute stretch. Ursinus went up 35-21 at the 5:20-mark of the third quarter and Irondi converted back-to-back three-point plays to give the Bears a 41-26 lead entering the fourth quarter. The Diplomats ended their field goal-less stretch on their opening possession of the fourth quarter and scored the first four points to make it a 41-30 game. However, the Bears continued to make things difficult for F&M on offense and held the Diplomats without a point for a stretch of 6:07. This allowed Ursinus to maintain their double-digit advantage for the entire length of the fourth quarter to lock up the win.
The Bears shot 28.3% (13-of-46) from the field, 23.5% (4-of-17) from three-point range, and 72% (18-of-25) from the charity stripe. Franklin & Marshall was held to 24.4% (11-of-45) from the field, 18.2% (2-of-11) from deep, and 76.9% (10-of-13) from the charity stripe. The Bears held a 41-17 edge in rebounds and a 17-11. advantage in offensive rebounds.
The Bears return to action on Saturday, February 3
rd as they will travel to face Washington College at 2:00 p.m.
