By SPENCER BATES
HENRICO, VA — For the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team, from here on out, it is win or go home.
The regular season has reached its conclusion and now, directly ahead of the No. 15 seed Bonnies, is the ever-daunting Atlantic 10 tournament.
Bona finished bottom of the A10 table despite some improved performances in the final weeks of conference play and drew No. 10 seed Saint Louis as its opponent in the first round of the tournament. An intriguing prospect considering the fact that the Billikens were one of the two teams the Bonnies managed to defeat in-conference this year.
However, that game was played back on Jan. 8, and by the time the sides tip-off yet again, this time in Henrico, VA, nearly two months will have passed. This, as Bona coach Jim Crowley noted, has left plenty of time for each side to adapt, grow and alter their style. Therefore, nothing is guaranteed.
“I mean, obviously, both teams are quite different,” Crowley said. “Saint Louis were 0-4 (in conference) when we beat them. They finished up 7-11. So they played, pretty much, .500 basketball, in-league, since. And they have had some really good wins, including, last week, beating (Rhode Island). So, clearly, they’re playing really good basketball. And what they’ve got with (Kennedy) Calhoun and (Peyton) Kennedy, they have two kids who have won an A10 title and won an NIT title. So they have a certain expectation in the postseason. So, I think we’ve got to survive the first few minutes of their confidence and their physicality and us kind of getting our feet under us.”
Luckily for Crowley, as of late, he has seen more well-rounded performances out of his side when they are on the road. Specifically, he pointed out the team’s games at Davidson, La Salle and Duquesne and how he believes one of the main reasons they’ve performed so well away from home is that there is less pressure placed on the team while not in front of a home crowd. He will hope to see that trend continue, and not see his youthful roster fall into the “quicksand” of it being the first postseason for the majority of his players.
“On the road, I think we’re a little more relaxed and we’re able to be a little more unified, because everyone’s together all the time,” Crowley said. “We have played better on the road, the wild card is that it’s over half our team’s first time playing in the postseason. So, it’ll be interesting how the first few minutes of that goes.”
And it is that postseason inexperience that Crowley is wary of leading to the biggest problems for his team. But, the Bonnies are not without any guiding light at this time. Dani Haskell, granted she did not play in their conference tournament game last year against Dayton, will be a big crutch the team will lean on for an understanding of the moment.
“Certainly we’ll lean on Dani, while she didn’t play last year, she certainly has experience and has the urgency,” Crowley said. “That’s one of the great things about tournament play and seniors, is the urgency that they have to play with, because reality is setting in. … And hopefully, the enthusiasm of the unknown will be a good thing for our young kids.”
And while Crowley is anticipating his team’s game against SLU to have nearly a completely different feel to it this time around, there are some constants he hopes to see carry over. The first of which being the success his guards had in the regular season meeting between the sides. In that Jan. 8 game, Haskell and Zoe Shaw scored 21 and 17 points respectively. Outputs that will be crucial to pulling out a win considering the ability of the Billikens’ guard duo of Calhoun and Brooklyn Gray.
But what has the ability to give Bona the edge, according to Crowley, will be Caitlin Frost, who netted 19 points last time against SLU.
“I don’t care who we’re playing, those two guys have to score,” Crowley said of Haskell and Shaw. “What really helped us against Saint Louis is that Caitlin had 19 (points). … If we can get a third person to around 15, or two or three more players to 10, then we’re knocking on 60 points. And I feel pretty good with the way we’ve been defending that we can keep people around there. But obviously scoring has been an issue for us all year, and hopefully we can find some ways to get some easier baskets.”
An added component in favor of the Bonnies against Saint Louis will be Hannah Richardson, who was still making her way back from injury when the sides faced for the first time this season. Crowley noted that Richardson, who has grown exponentially into her role as a guard/forward hybrid since her return, will be pivotal in tandem with Frost.
“Hannah’s gotten better every game,” Crowley said. “(She’s) more consistent and has found her spots better and her and Caitlin have gotten better and better playing off each other. I think they’ve played better the last few games, and hopefully, Wednesday, they play the best they have together. That’s what we’re going to need. But again, it’s their first time in the postseason, so it may take them a quarter to even realize that they’re in Virginia.”
Crowley noted the A10 tournament comes with “a different energy.” He also praised the A10 for the job it had done with the venue last year and the palpable enthusiasm that he felt during his team’s time. But ultimately, what he noted makes all the difference is the knowledge that it is, in fact, now or never.
“There’s something different when there’s a finality to it,” Crowley said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how our kids handle that.”
St. Bonaventure and Saint Louis will tip-off at 2:30 p.m. on March 5 in the Henrico Sports & Events Center.
