Second Quarter Outburst Lifts Griffins Past Comets

TAMPA, Fla.— Behind a dominant second quarter, the Fontbonne University women's basketball team snapped its three-game slide with a 69-65 win over Olivet.

The Griffins (4-6), shot 40.0 percent from the floor and pulled down 40 rebounds, which is the fourth time this year they've totaled at least 40-plus boards in a game.

Individually, the reigning SLIAC Player of the Week, Rylee Stafford, followed her 30-point performance up with 20 points tonight on 7-of-19 shooting. Riley Guffey went 4-of-8 to finish with a season-high 13 points, while Raven Venegas totaled 11 points and tied her sister Jillian Venegas with seven rebounds.

Olivet (5-6), shot 37.5 percent overall and they were led by Shawnee Dame's 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Grace Clark and Tammy Lee contributed 12 and 11 points, respectively.

In the first quarter, the Comets opened with an 11-3 lead on Beth Chick's layup at 6:42. The Griffins never got its offense going in the first as they shot 3-of-13 (23.1 percent), including going 1-of-9 from downtown and that allowed Olivet to take a 20-10 lead after 10:00 minutes of play.

The script flipped in the second in favor of Fontbonne. Down 23-16, the Griffins went on an 8-0 run as Raven Venegas sank her layup to give the visitor's a 24-23 lead at 7:09.

With 4:28 to go, the Comets tied it up (29-29) on Tammy Lee's 3-pointer, but the Griffins closed out the quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 36-29 lead into the locker room.

After making just three shots in the first, the Griffins picked it up offensively going 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) and hit four 3-pointers. The Comets, meanwhile, had its struggles going 3-of-16 with all of its buckets coming from downtown.

In the third, the Griffins were on top 40-31 one minute in, but Olivet got back in it with an 8-0 run over the next four and half minutes to make it a 40-39 game.

Fontbonne answered with six straight free throws to gain some breathing room with 2:51 left. Olivet got it down to 46-42, but a free throw from Mallory Proffer and a made bucket from Stafford with 12.0 seconds left gave them the 49-42 advantage heading into the fourth.

In the fourth, consecutive buckets from Raven and Jillian Venegas gave Fontbonne a 55-46 lead at 7:23. Olivet wouldn't go away, though as they trailed 59-50 and closed the gap down to one with an 8-0 run after Dame collected the old-fashioned 3-point play with 3:29 remaining.

Guffey followed that up with a made layup and she too got fouled on the play. The sophomore made her free throw to put Fontbonne ahead, 64-58.

The Comets trailed by three with nine seconds remaining, but the Griffins were able to hang on for the four-point win.

Fontbonne looks to close out its Florida trip 2-0 as they'll take on Otterbein tomorrow afternoon. Tip-off at 4 p.m.

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