The University of Dayton women’s basketball team picked up its first win of the season on Monday night, November 9, holding off Penn State 77-71 at UD Arena, according to Penn State Athletics.
The Flyers (1-1) trailed after the first quarter but seized control in the second, outscoring the Lady Lions 21-8 to take a 37-29 halftime lead. Dayton made five of its last seven field goals in the half while Penn State went scoreless over the final 2:40 before the break, the Penn State Collegian reported.
Penn State (0-3) got career nights from its two stars and still came up short. Junior Petra Božan led all scorers with a career-high 27 points, including five three-pointers, and junior Devyn Quigley added a career-high 23 points with 18 of them coming from beyond the arc, Penn State Athletics reported. Sophomore Skylar Durley added 10 points.
The Lady Lions outscored Dayton 21-16 in both the first and third quarters, and their 52.4 percent shooting from three-point range was their best perimeter performance of the young season, according to Penn State Athletics.
The finish was frantic. Dayton forward Molly O’Riordan drilled a contested three-pointer with 55 seconds left to push the lead to 72-65, the Collegian reported. Penn State answered with a Božan layup and a Quigley three to cut it to 73-70 with 44 seconds remaining, but a five-second inbound violation in the final seconds turned the ball back to Dayton, and the Flyers closed it out at the free-throw line.
The win gives Dayton a quality non-conference result in its home building, a week after the Flyers opened the season with a loss to Illinois State in which forward Ibrahim posted 23 points and 18 rebounds, according to the Collegian.
Penn State heads back on the road Sunday, November 15, to face Arizona State in Tempe. Dayton, now 1-1 in Atlantic 10 non-conference play, will look to build on a win that required poise in the final minute — exactly the kind of finish that can steady a team in November.
Photo: Adam Sonnett, CC BY-SA