DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Despite a game-high 18 points from Kendra Cooper, Bethune-Cookman Women's Basketball dropped its season opener to the Brown Bears on Friday evening, 68-61 at Moore Gymnasium.
With the homestanding Wildcats looking up at a 44-40 deficit with 1:43 remaining in the third quarter, Cooper, a junior guard from Spring, Texas, connected on a jumper just inside the paint to cut the deficit to two heading into the fourth quarter. To start the fourth and final stanza, redshirt freshman Ashanti Hunt (Washington, D.C.) scored a basket in the paint – one of B-CU's 24 on the night, knotting the game at 44-all.
Bethune-Cookman (0-1) took its first lead of the second half when Hunt connected on her free throw to complete the three-point play, giving the Cats a slight 45-44 edge with 9:29 left in the game.
Brown (1-0) then embarked upon a 7-0 run, sparked by a three-pointer from Rebecca Musgrove and a jumper from the right elbow courtesy Shayna Mehta, giving the visiting Bears a 51-45 advantage with 8:01 remaining.
Less than a minute later, Cooper connected on one of her two (2) three-point baskets on the night, tying the game at 51-51 – representing the fifth tie overall of the contest.
However, over the next four minutes, Brown used five points from Mehta and four more from Mary Butler to run out to an insurmountable 64-53 lead with two and a half minutes remaining.
Despite a late scoring surge from Cooper and teammate Jasmine Knowles (Romulus, Mich.), the Wildcats were unable to bring the deficit below six down the stretch.
Brown outrebounded the Wildcats courtesy a 37-31 advantage, leading to 14 second chance points for the Bears. Brown also won the battle in the paint, scoring 30 of the team's 68 points on the inside, while the Wildcats scored 24 on the inside.
Brown was led in scoring by Mehta, coming off the bench for 17 points in a 7-for-15 shooting performance, adding three (3) three-pointers, six steals and two assists. She was joined in double figures by Jordin Alexander with 16 points and three assists.
B-CU was paced by Cooper's game-high of 18 points and four assists. Meanwhile, redshirt junior Kailyn Williams (New Orleans, La.) supplied 16 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
The game was back-and-forth for most of the first half, as neither team could muster up more than a four-point advantage until late in the second quarter.
Bethune-Cookman grabbed a four-point lead (23-19) with Kailyn Williams and Hunt supplying the scoring in a 5-1 run over the course of the first two minutes into the second stanza.
But it was Megan Reilly's three-pointer with 6:11 remaining in the first half that kick started a 12-2 Brown run, eventually leading to the Bears' 31-26 edge at the half.
The Cats return to the hardwood Sunday, Nov. 15, as the team travels to the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.
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