Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Penn State
Freshmen Shine But Bucknell Women's Basketball Falls 77-62 to Penn State
11/19/2009 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2009
| Video Highlights
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Cosima Higham (Brooklyn, N.Y./Poly Prep Country Day) earned her first double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds, and Rachel Voss (Cincinnati, Ohio/Loveland) added another 11 points to lead the Bison, but Bucknell women's basketball took it third loss in as many games, falling 77-62 to Penn State at Sojka Pavilion Thursday night. Voss and her fellow freshman teammates shined in their home debut, scoring half of the Bison's points.
All four freshmen put up career highs in scoring. In addition to Voss' 11, Lindsay Horbatuck (Avon, Conn./Avon) and Felicia Mgbada (Edison, N.J./Blair Academy) each tallied seven points, and Alyssa Dunn (Mason, Ohio/Seven Hills School) chipped in six.
"I was really happy to see them as aggressive as they were," head coach Kathy Fedorjaka said of her newest cohort. "They're making us better by pushing the older players."
Bucknell (0-3) capitalized on a sluggish start by Penn State (3-0) in the early minutes of the game, allowing itself to stay in the mix. After falling behind 5-0, Morgan Wrightson (Gaithersburg, Md./Notre Dame Academy (Va.)) helped get the Bison to within one at 7-6 with a free throw and a deep three from behind the men's arc.
Although the Lady Lions continued to put some room between them and their opponent, the Bison freshmen and some good ball movement midway through the half kept the contest close. Mgbada hit a jumper at the elbow and Horbatuck followed a layup with a steal to get Bucknell to 16-10. Voss and Horbatuck whittled the Penn State lead even more for 18-15, but that was the Bison's last good look at an advantage.
Penn State found its legs at that point to go on a 15-2 run. With 5:32 to play in the first, the Lady Lions had jumped out in front 31-17.
Bucknell continued to work through the remainder of the half and even got the deficit back to single digits at 35-27 with a three-point play by Higham at 1:57. A pair of Penn State layups in the final minute, however, sent the teams to their locker rooms with the Lady Lions leading 39-27.
Bucknell got its hole back down to single digits one more time early in the second half. Voss earned an old-fashioned three-point play less than three minutes in, and Wrightson hit a jumper for 45-37. Penn State pulled away once again and a 12-0 run ended Bucknell's hopes of claiming its first lead of the night.
The Bison freshmen posted 14 of the team's last 19 points. Higham was the only veteran to get in on the action, completing her double-double in the final two minutes. A layup at 2:08 and a defensive rebound with :25 remaining pushed the junior forward over the threshold.
Although Penn State steadily increased its lead in the second half, Bucknell stayed neck-and-neck with its opponent in some key areas. After being outscored in the paint 22-12 in the first frame, the Bison kept things even at 16 in the second. They also reduced Penn State's second-chance points from 14 in the first half to eight, while improving to eight points themselves, in the second. Fifteen of the Bison's second-half points came off the bench, an improvement over their eight-point total in the first. Penn State tallied 17 points off the bench in the second, 10 of which came from last season's leading scorer in Tyra Grant.
Grant was one of four Lady Lions to finish in double-digit scoring. Nikki Greene and Zhaque Gray totaled 11 apiece, while Alex Bentley also had 10.
Bucknell will have a quick turnaround before its next game. The team will be part of a Bison tripleheader, hosting Fordham at 5 p.m. in Sojka Pavilion. The Bucknell football team will lead off the full day of activities with a 1 p.m. kick off in its season finale against Holy Cross at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, while the men's basketball squad will conclude the day with a 7:30 p.m. tipoff at Sojka against Saint Francis (Pa.).
