By Spencer Bates
ALBANY — From the get-go, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team struggled to break through a staunch UAlbany defense, a force that was unrelenting and unforgiving for the visitors.
The Great Danes’ committed defense snuffed out the grand majority of the Bonnies’ opportunities, save for a handful of layups scored in the fast break, and dominated the first half. And while the second-half response was an improvement, it proved too late for any sort of comeback as they suffered a 64-48 loss, their sixth of the season.
“We just weren’t good enough in the first half,” St. Bonaventure coach Jim Crowley said. “(UAlbany) is a really good team, this is a team that’s going to play deep in March, win a lot of games, they’ve already won a lot. They’re very experienced, they are very disciplined, and we just weren’t at that level enough in the first half. We let too many things impact our execution and how we needed to play.”
And as a result of UAlbany’s emphasis on defense, and the physical nature of its team in general, it ran away with the battle of the boards, roping in 35 total rebounds compared to the 23 that St. Bonaventure was able to collect. Of those 35 boards, 11 came on the offensive end resulting in 10 second-chance points.
St. Bonaventure guard Dani Haskell (22) gets around a UAlbany defender and looks to drive into the lane. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
However, there was far from zero offense generated by the Bonnies. A focal point for them on the offensive side of the floor was Caitlin Frost, an ever-increasing presence on the court since making her first appearance of the season in a loss to Loyola Maryland on Nov. 27. Frost recorded a team-high 16 points in her 31 minutes of game time.
But the Great Danes made life difficult for the Bonnies’ leading scorer this season in Dani Haskell who recorded just five points on just 25% from the field. UAlbany was keyed in on Haskell and it was rare for her to find any breathing room. This meant that the rock had to be moved to another capable scorer.
Enter: Isabellah Middleton.
Despite having started the game on the bench, Middleton had the second-highest point tally of any Bona player, finishing with 11 along with three rebounds and two steals that led to baskets.
She was a big factor, especially during an 8.5 minute stretch in the second half where the Bonnies managed to flip the script and go on a 14-7 run to bring the scores back within 15 after having been down by as many as 24 points in the contest. In fact, the Bonnies won the second half by a 32-25 margin, a response that Crowley was pleased with.
“I thought (we) responded really well in the second half,” Crowley said. “Certainly that’s something we want to build on. As I said, that’s a good basketball team that does what they do. Really, we played the way we wanted to play in the second half, they did a great job.”
“Isabellah played really hard and Caitlin’s getting real excited. It’s only (Caitlin’s) fourth game playing, she’s starting to figure out our offense, where it can be, how we can play together with her through the paint. … I thought Gabby (Robinson Forde) played a really solid game, got herself a little better production there. But, (UAlbany) did a good job taking away Dani, so other people had to step up.”
St. Bonaventure guard Lena Walz looks to blow past a UAlbany defender. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
According to Crowley, what he spoke to his side about during the halftime interval was pace and commitment.
Oftentimes in the first half, the Bonnies found themselves deep into the shot clock — they were called for violations of that regard twice. Crowley wanted to see the pace picked up, a call that was heeded as they beat the Great Danes in fast-break points 6-5 on the day.
“We didn’t like our pace, I didn’t think we were playing hard enough,” Crowley said. “We talked about that, we saw some things, we didn’t stay committed to post touches. I thought we corrected all those things.”
Bona will not have much time to digest this loss as it will suit up to host Niagara University on Dec. 17. Crowley noted that the Purple Eagles play with a great deal of physicality and was glad he saw some fight against similar toughness in UAlbany.
“(Niagara) plays a very unique style,” Crowley said. “They played very physical, very tough, I thought we battled back against a little bit of that tonight. So, it was good to see that resiliency. We got to be prepared. We got a two-day turnaround. They’ve had two weeks to get ready.”
Tip-off between St. Bonaventure and Niagara is set for 6:30 p.m. at the Reilly Center.
