By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — After last season’s struggles, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team made defense the top priority in the offseason.
They picked up players with plenty of experience at the Div. I level and big defenders to clog up the paint.
That’s why the first half of its final exhibition game — which inevitably wound up as a 79-68 win — before the regular season against Div. II Daemen University was so worrying, as they trailed 44-32.
“We were really defending as individuals,” head coach Jim Crowley said. “We weren’t team-defending and getting to the ball and being aware of where the ball was. … That’s something we hadn’t seen, but that’s why it’s good to play against other teams. They’re going to read some things, and I thought they read some things we were doing offensively, and made us have to adjust. But a lot of stuff in the paint … I thought was off drives and miscommunication on some screen coverage, rather than people overpowering us. I didn’t think we got beat up there as much.”
The Wildcats were rapid, moving the ball with great accuracy through the Bona defense and thus winning the points-in-the-paint category 30-14 at the half and 42-26 at the conclusion. It was off-color for what he had been seeing from his team throughout the preseason, Crowley noted. Of course, the situation was not helped with the absence of Laycee Drake, who was confined to the bench for most of the opening half with two early fouls.
But the biggest difference between this year and last year was the response the Bonnies produced after the intermission.
“The first half we had some disruptions and nerves and we didn’t really do the things that we had been practicing,” Crowley said. “We got out of that in the second half.
“I thought our ball pressure improved and we were smart with it. But there were too many times where people were dribbling too far to the rim without anybody else there,” Crowley said. “We were late to our lanes and we were stagnant in our lanes, so we’ll just keep working on that. … It’s not shocking (that in the) first game people are a little nervous.”
St. Bonaventure’s Laycee Drake (24) helped prop up the Bonnies offense against Daemen, scoring 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting. Drake also tallied five rebounds and three assists through 19 minutes on the floor. (Hunter O. Lyle)
With Drake back in the game, the whole energy of the Bona team was brought up. It was the hosts that dictated the pace of the game on both ends of the floor, and through the shored up defense, the offense came to life. Drake finished with a full stat line of 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, but it was her guard counterpart in Aaliyah Parker that finished as the game’s leading scorer with 19 points, five rebounds and three assists.
And according to the duo, things are clicking thanks to the chemistry that had been established in the preseason.
“I think that it’s come a long way,” Parker said. “We didn’t really know each other, so we had to build that chemistry up. But as we got to know each other, we got to know what each other do, make reads off each other, and tonight showed that it’s got better.”
Of course, as Drake noted, when you bring in a lot of players with the experience this group has, it is much easier to bond.
“When people play a lot of basketball and then they come together, it usually clicks pretty well,” Drake said.
The Bonnies outscored the Wildcats 47-24 in the second half en route to the comeback victory with significant help in the closing minutes from its returners from last season in Gabby Robinson and Mackenzie Pettinelli.
“The second half looked a little more like the plan here early in the season,” Crowley said. “The older kids were mixing with some younger kids. We just had to play a lot of younger kids in the first half, and that was a tough situation.”
St. Bonaventure’s Gabby Robinson (14) shoots over an incoming defender during the Bonnies’ comeback win over the Wildcats. (Hunter O. Lyle)
All but two players made a return from last year’s squad, so for the grand majority of the Bonnies this was their first winning experience in the Reilly Center, a moment the team’s two leaders admitted was excellent.
“It was great, the energy was there,” Parker said.
Drake agreed.
“I thought it was really fun, it was a good environment to play in,” Drake said.
St. Bonaventure will host Mansfield to open the season on Nov. 3 at 6 p.m.
