By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — At this point in the year, with the regular season wrapped up, nothing changes except the atmosphere.
There are no surprises as to what a team is going to be served entering these do-or-die games. Teams do not magically develop new dimensions in the short time between when the campaign ends and conference tournaments begin. Identities are set in stone and what a team has is what they will need to try and win with.
That being said, it is nearly impossible to deny that this time of year does not have an effect.
Players and coaches may look to downplay the moment as just another game. But the reality is the opposite. Every game from here on out, those on the court are faced with the prospect that it may be their last.
St. Bonaventure women’s basketball head coach Jim Crowley has come to accept that. But as his team, who earned the No. 9 seed in the Atlantic 10 Championship, gets prepared to face No. 8 Loyola Chicago on March 5, he is informing his team that the way to circumvent the atmosphere making an impact is to have trust in one another and belief in what they have worked on all season.
“There’s always, there better be, at least, at the end of season, an urgency, a bit of desperation,” Crowley said. “We have played Loyola twice, and both games we led going to the fourth quarter, and both games we lost. So, our top priority of conversation is finishing the game and knowing that they never stop, they keep coming, and if you don’t execute consistently, they’re going to keep coming at you with a great pace and competitiveness. We’ve seen that firsthand twice.”
But there’s another layer of mental fortitude that Crowley is seeking from his players going into what will be round three with the Ramblers this season.
Bona lost each of the two meetings between the sides in the regular season. While those losses may have come by an albeit small margin — 12 points combined — there is the sink or swim mentality that comes with facing a team that has handed you a loss twice already in a year. Of course, the team was not at full strength for either of the two matchups, with Aaliyah Parker having missed the latter game they lost by three points and Ivona Djikanovic having missed both.
“Our mindset is going to be a really important thing,” Crowley said. “Do they make a run in the fourth quarter and we start to think about it, or do we just go out and do what we need to do? Obviously, Aaliyah played in the first game, so they have seen her. She does give us another, more versatile defender, which can help with some of the stuff. And (Ivona Djikanovic) hasn’t played in either game, and ‘Vo’ is arguably one of our top three defenders. So, I think that’s something worth noting.”
In the eyes of Crowley, there are three boxes that will need to be checked if his team is to secure victory in its first game of the tournament: offensive efficiency, ball security and late-game execution. In all three of those areas, the Ramblers were able to burn the Bonnies in one or both of the regular season games.
“We got to shoot the ball better against them, that may sound simple, but in both games they’ve shot better percentages,” Crowley said. “They haven’t been great, but they’ve got better percentages from the floor, the 3-point line and the foul line. (Also), we got to limit their points on turnovers and offensive rebounds. In the first game, those two things were over half their points, and about 40% of their points in the second game. And then we got to play a whole game. Both games, we gave up over 20 points in the fourth quarter and led by five points with six minutes to go (at home). So, a lot of that credit goes to Loyola. That’s something we’ve got to absolutely learn from.”
Muscle will also come into play. In game two, even with Parker and her ability to drive at defenders out, Bona was able to get a significant amount of offense under the basket. Brillana Boyd was the one doing the damage in the second game and she along with the other forwards, whether that be Parker, Kylie Buckley or Gabby Robinson, will need to come up with some sort of production.
“It’s always interesting, I think this time of year physicality comes up, but you never know, to be very honest, in conference tournaments, how the games will be called,” Crowley said. “Sometimes officials know that they’re on the fringe of the NCAA tournament or advancing, and maybe they use their whistle a little more than they had a couple of weeks ago. So, we’ve got to just be ready for how the game is being called and handle it and not let it impact us. We fouled them a lot last game. We were just a step slow on things, we were undisciplined on things, and again, credit to Loyola, they consistently put pressure on you with that stuff. We didn’t answer the call last time, and we got to be ready to do that on Thursday.”
Scoring must come from the outside as well. In order to keep the Loyola defense honest, Crowley will be looking towards, of course, Laycee Drake — whose craftiness and expert ball handling have been a highlight of the team’s offense all season — but also to Mackenzie Pettinelli. Having the highest scoring outing of her collegiate career in Bona’s last game of the regular season, netting 18 points, a similar output would go a long way against Loyola. The key, according to Crowley, is for her to remain confident in her efforts.
“She was really aggressive in the first quarter against George Washington, but she missed her shots,” Crowley said. “She didn’t miss her shots (against Fordham), so she stayed aggressive. We’ve got to get her over that. Right now, if she misses, she loses her aggressiveness, and that can’t happen. She gets herself open, she has good shots, her teammates find her and she’s obviously capable. So it’s just all part of that maturing process of being able to handle a little failure and to keep taking the shots, whether they go in or not, if they’re the right shots.”
Players to watch out for from Loyola Chicago are Alex-Anne Bessette, who has built herself a case for being one of the best freshmen in all of the A10 this season, Alexus Mobley, Alexa Kinas and Kira Chivers.
Kinas led the Ramblers in game two between the sides with 21 points. Mobley netted 13 in that game.
St. Bonaventure and Loyola Chicago will tip-off at 11 a.m. on March 5 in Henrico, Virginia.
