By SPENCER BATES
RICHMOND, VA — After two quarters of play, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team had Richmond right where it wanted.
The Bonnies had controlled the tempo and executed their game plan to near perfection. They slowed down the Spiders, taking away early looks, and forced them deep into the shot clock. The goal was to not let them find a groove, and on that front they succeeded.
But what impressed head coach Jim Crowley on top of his team’s ability to follow through on their orders, was its ability to come up with the response when a defensive lapse did occur.
“I thought the execution of the game plan was really good, but then also just our ability to handle their runs,” Crowley said. “Every time we made a shot, they made a big shot, and we just kept on coming. We even had a little more left as we got to halftime. … I was really proud of that and I certainly believe the team understands who we are and how we need to play and hopefully how we can do it longer.”
But come the second half, Richmond managed to wriggle out from the grip Bona had and proceeded to flip the game on its head. Through the final two frames, the Spiders were the ones forcing the Bonnies to play their game — a fast-paced, 3-point reliant style. One in which did not suit Crowley’s team.
“I give credit to Richmond, they have a championship pedigree and it showed,” Crowley said. “They have a lot of experience playing together and it showed. But I think we just lost our aggressiveness. I think instead of playing loose and confident, like we did in the first half, we started to play unsure. We didn’t want to make mistakes, and so we just got real tentative. I think (Richmond’s) zone defense had a little to do with that, … but I certainly was proud of the way we kept coming. It just didn’t work out.”
Bona scored just seven points in the entire third quarter and just 13 in the fourth. Richmond took the 32-30 deficit it faced at the break and turned it into the Bonnies’ largest margin of defeat this season.
In the eventual 75-52 loss, one of Bona’s stars in Aaliyah Parker was noticeably absent for a decent portion of time. She played just 17 minutes and after taking a hard fall and coming up short on a 3-pointer, was subbed out with 7.5 minutes left in the third quarter and did not play the rest of the game.
Fortunately, Parker has played through a number of bumps and bruises this season and Crowley anticipates her to be ready to go for the team’s next game at VCU, even with a quick turnaround.
“We’re very hopeful,” Crowley said of Parker. “Obviously, she’s a huge part of what we do and she would be very important for us tomorrow afternoon.”
In other injury news, Crowley provided an update on Gabby Robinson, who missed her second full game after picking up a lower leg injury against Davidson on Feb. 4. According to him, they are “very hopeful” to have her back prior to the end of the regular season.
The more healthy bodies the better for the Bonnies as they and the Rams alike will be looking to put lopsided losses behind them.
The Rams will enter the game on the back of an 85-42 loss at Rhode Island and three consecutive losses. The first loss of that stretch, a 77-65 loss to Richmond, wound up being VCU’s last game under head coach Beth O’Boyle, the winningest head coach in program history, who was fired the next day. O’Boyle was the first head coach in Div. I women’s basketball to be fired this season.
VCU announced that assistant coach Kirk Crawford will serve as head coach for the rest of the season, and after two losses to start his interim role at the head of the bench, he will also be hungry for a win.
“They’re two different teams, at home and on the road,” Crowley said of VCU. “In their last few home games compared to their last few road games, it’s almost a 15, 16-point difference in offensive production. They play with a lot of energy defensively. … They’ve struggled, they had the coaching change, they were up most of the game against Loyola, and had a bad final five minutes, and just really ran into a buzz saw. They haven’t been home since the coaching change. So, I think there’s going to be a lot of energy, and they’re in a situation where they really need a win. So, we’re going to see a really, really good version of a very talented team.”
Not only do the Bonnies and Rams share a desire for a big win at the tail end of the regular season, they also share a similar offensive style.
After having lost who would have been their top scoring option in Mary-Anna Asare to injury early in the conference portion of the season, VCU has relied upon a team-based scoring approach, akin to the one Bona has opted to lean into down the stretch. So, unlike recent games in which the Bonnies have been able to identify one or two major threats to try and snuff out, the Rams will require a much more balanced defensive focus.
“They’ve had to adjust,” Crowley said. “They’ve had some other injuries, so a lot of other people have had really good opportunities, and some are taking advantage of it. They play a lot of different folks that are dangerous in different ways. They have a couple really good inside players who also can step out. They have some shooters. They have some dynamic guards. So really, where our focus was on one or two kids in some of the other games, theirs is a really balanced attack. We have to be ready and able to team-defend against everyone on the floor.”
If there is one player to key in on it will be Katarina Knezevic, a 6-0 Serbian who can score at just about every level if she’s allowed to find a groove. Currently, she averages just shy of double figures with 9.9 points per game to go along with an average of 5.1 rebounds. She had scored 22 of her team’s 65 points in their loss to Richmond at the start of the month.
“She’s very dangerous,” Crowley said. “She’ll post up, She’ll shoot the 3 and she’ll play off the bounce. She presents a really interesting matchup situation. She had a great game against Richmond a couple games ago and is another kid that plays much better at home. We’ve got to limit her easy ones. We got to make her think, keep her off the boards, keep her away from transition scores, and hopefully not let her get into a good groove shooting the 3.”
St. Bonaventure will wrap up its Virginia road trip on Feb. 14 at the Siegel Center. Tip-off against VCU is set for 1 p.m.
