HAMILTON – The Colgate Women's Basketball team ran out to an 11-point first quarter lead that it never relinquished Thursday afternoon at Cotterell Court, as the Raiders topped St. Bonaventure by a 58-45 count.

"We wanted to make sure we played better defensively tonight, and we definitely did that," said head coach Ganiyat Adeduntan. "Some things opened up for us offensively as well but I thought we were really tough, really aggressive, and we followed our gameplan defensively."   

After the teams traded points in the opening three minutes, Colgate started to go on a tear. The Raiders closed the first quarter on an 18-7 run and Ella Meabon scored seven straight on her own for the hosts to open up the game.

Colgate looked for the dagger to open the second quarter, but the Bonnies weathered the storm temporarily. A 7-0 run from the visitors in the opening three minutes brought the margin to four, but the Raiders' offense found their groove to close the half. With the score at 26-22 with under three minutes remaining in the second quarter, Madison Schiller netted a three, then Chidinma Okafor cashed in on an and-one to give Colgate a double digit lead at the break.

St. Bonaventure continued to hang around out of the break, as it opened the third quarter on an 8-2 run to make it 34-30. After a crucial two-minute stretch where neither team scored, the Raiders took momentum once again and were able to push away from the Bonnies.

After a pair of Christina Midgette free throws pushed the Colgate lead to six, St. Bonaventure got it back on a jumper with 3:09 to play, but Morgan McMahon scored on two straight possessions to quickly bring the score to 40-32. Okafor fought through contact once again for a three-point play to close the scoring in the quarter and give the Raiders an 11-point edge once again.

Colgate never let the Bonnies get any closer than 11 points for the rest of the game and the lead even ballooned to 20 points with just over three minutes remaining.
 

After she barely missed out on a double-double against Central Connecticut, Schiller was just one rebound shy of the feat against the Bonnies. She scored 10 points and added nine rebounds to notch the game-high in boards.
 

Meabon and McMahon were the top scorers on the afternoon for the home side, as they both totaled 11 points. It is the fourth time on the season that McMahon has reached double figures, while it is Meabon's second such outing.
 

Sophia Diehl chipped in all over the scoresheet, as she had seven points, but also added a team-high two steals to go along with six rebounds and two assists.

The Raiders' reached six wins on the season with the triumph, which marks the most non-conference wins in a season for Colgate since Ganiyat Adeduntan took over as head coach.
 

Colgate puts a wrap on non-conference play with a road trip to Massachusetts Dec. 29 to face

America East foe, UMass Lowell. Tip time is set for 2 p.m.