By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — The growth of the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team has been well noted throughout this season, but it is not done taking steps in the right direction.
Most recently, it defeated VCU, but it was not just another victory. Bona had previously never beaten VCU on the road at the Siegel Center and head coach Jim Crowley had recorded a win over the Rams.
The Bonnies had done something they had never done before, and a significant factor in the win was the ever-growing chemistry. But so too was the understanding amongst one another that it was a big game in the home stretch of the regular season.
“We’ve seen it all year, this group is really wired in together,” Crowley said. “Specifically right now, it’s the end (of the regular season), they know it, and are playing for one another. I thought at the close of that game, Laycee (Drake) and Aaliyah (Parker) really showed their experience and everyone else understood how to finish as well. In some other games, we’ve had leads, and teams have closed it right down to a one possession game. With this lead, we were able to not only keep it, but extend it and finish the game off, which is hard to do on the road in February.”
Bona had started the game off hot, shooting out to a quick double-figure lead. But as the opening half progressed, VCU was able to all but wipe away the advantage of the visitors. So, at the half, Crowley had to put the fire back in his team.
“We talked a lot about our defensive basics and making people score against those, and not giving away scores,” Crowley said. “We gave away a few in the second quarter and in the third, but we tightened it up as the game went on. We also allowed our defense to create offense for us, which is when we’re at our best. If we can get a few extra points there, that really gets our half court offense going.”
And in the second half, he got the response he was hoping for. The Bonnies surged ahead once again, and fended off the Rams for a 64-53 victory.
However, by the time Bona tips-off its next game, that important result in Richmond will have been a week removed — an eternity in the rapid slide towards the end of the regular season.
In that time off, getting back to full health was a top priority, but so too was fine tuning each and every aspect of its game as it prepares for round two with Loyola Chicago, this time at home.
“Obviously we want to prepare for Loyola, but also we want to make sure, offensively, we continue to grow and understand the movement we’ve got to do in the half court, and defensively, continue to communicate and team-defend like we’ve been able to do and just hopefully keep getting better.”
The last time the sides faced off, back on Jan. 31, the Bonnies were in the midst of a losing skid and the Ramblers were the fifth and final team to beat them in that stretch. Since, fortunes have flipped.
Bona has now won three of its last four games. Meanwhile Loyola Chicago has dropped each of their last three while scoring an average of just 53 points per game.
But, as Crowley knows, momentum is a funny thing and while the losses down the stretch certainly has his team eager to get revenge, the Ramblers are still a dangerous team.
“Basketball, within games, within seasons, is a game of momentum,” Crowley said. “When we played them, they were having really good momentum, and we were not. They still have eight conference wins. So obviously, they’re a very talented team. They got one of the best and most versatile freshmen in the league. They really are physical defensively, they really are going to ball pressure, and if we are not able to handle that, it’s going to be a long afternoon. … It’s late February, they’re going to be hungry for a win. We got to be hungry to protect our home court.”
Crowley is preparing his team for a Loyola squad that is poised to hound the ball handler. Despite losing the turnover battle in the first game between the sides this season, Bona did win points off turnovers. Loyola currently has the fourth-best turnover margin in all of the Atlantic 10. So, while the Bonnies may have done a solid job at limiting the scores the Ramblers got off their turnovers before, they are not going to want to give them the chance to do so this go around.
“They’re feast or famine,” Crowley said. “They’re going after the ball. They’re one of the best, if not the best team, in points off turnovers. So they’re trying to get that going, to get their offense going. If you can handle that, if you can make them have to guard, specifically, guard off-ball a lot more, which we didn’t do a great job in game one, you can get yourself some pretty decent looks.”
Alex-Anne Bessette has been making a name for herself as one of, if not the most promising freshmen in all of the A10 this season. She leads Loyola with an average of 11.5 points per game. But as of late, she has had her struggles.
Since she faced Bona, she has had difficulties with consistency. She failed to score in two of her last five games and netted just three points in one of those five. But in the other two games over the stretch she scored 14 and 15 points.
“She has become the focus point of very good defensive teams,” Crowley said. “I think teams are really making more of their game plan to stop her, which is allowing (Alexus Mobley) to have some better games. (Alexa Kinas) is having some consistent games. They’ve got a lot of weapons. We can’t let Bessette have a good game, but that doesn’t mean we give away easy scores to other folks.”
Some positive news on the injury front for Bona, Ivona Djikanovic, who has been out since Jan. 18 with a lower leg injury, is out of a boot and there is hope that the Bonnies will be able to get her back out onto the court this season. But that will not be against the Ramblers.
“We’re hopeful with her,” Crowley said of Djikanovic. “She won’t play Saturday, but we are hopeful that she will get on the court again.”
St. Bonaventure will tip-off against Loyola Chicago for its penultimate home game of the regular season on Feb. 21 at 3 p.m.
