By SPENCER BATES
RICHMOND, VA — St. Bonaventure women’s basketball head coach Jim Crowley, sensing danger, called a timeout early in the second half.
His side had executed their game plan perfectly thus far. Through the first two quarters, they had been the ones dictating the game. They controlled the tempo, forced Richmond late into the shot clock and limited the quick and easy buckets.
As a result, the Bonnies had taken a 32-30 lead into halftime over the Spiders, a team that handed them a 20-point loss earlier this season and started the season ranked in the top 25 in the nation.
But trouble was brewing. A Maggie Doogan layup, plus a foul shot, and a fastbreak layup from Alicia Newell flipped the narrow Bona lead into one in favor of the hosts.
Crowley had seen signs that his team was getting away from their game plan and he wanted to nip that problem in the bud. Unfortunately for him, Richmond had sensed the blood in the water as well and behind a renewed effort in the latter half, handed Bona a lopsided 75-52 defeat.
Brillana Boyd did all she could to keep her team in the contest, cleaning up one missed shot attempt after another under the basket as the Bonnies scrambled to stay in the game. She scored all seven of her team’s points in the third quarter en route to a team-high 13-point performance.
But Boyd could only do so much. Richmond closed out the third quarter on an 8-0 run, keeping Bona scoreless for the final four minutes of the frame. They maintained that pace into the fourth quarter, altogether keeping the Bonnies without a point for 6:37 between the quarters.
In that time, the Spiders ran away with the result, flipping that two-point halftime deficit into a 19-point lead early in the fourth.
Bona netted 13 points in the final quarter, but 27 points from Richmond put the game away long before the final buzzer.
Doogan (23 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists) and Rachel Ullstrom (21 points, 5-for-8 from 3) scored a combined 44 points for the Spiders. Newell was the only other member of the Spiders to reach double figures, scoring 11 points and grabbing five rebounds.
Laycee Drake and Olivia DiFranco shared the next highest point tally for the Bonnies behind Boyd, each netting nine points. Drake also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and dished six assists.
“Obviously it was a tough second half, but I was really proud of our effort in the first half,” Crowley said. “We did a lot of good things. Richmond’s a very good team, and an even better team at home. We battled really well for a while, but we just gave them a lot of second chance opportunities, they got themselves to the free throw line and just created too much separation for us.”
St. Bonaventure will look to shake the loss as it has a quick turnaround for its next game, another away affair at VCU on Feb. 14 at 1 p.m.
