By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — After having tipped off conference play with a loss, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team, will look to right the ship as it opens its Atlantic 10 home account by welcoming Rhode Island.
The Bonnies struggled in their first league game of the season, a 57-40 road loss to Loyola-Chicago, but so too did the host Ramblers. The offenses for both teams found it immensely difficult to find the bottom of the basket through three quarters, but then, all of a sudden, the lids were lifted and the scoring shifted into high gear and it was the defenses of both teams that fell to the wayside.
After the game, Bona coach Jim Crowley spoke about his team’s need to play a complete game, start to finish. An opportunity that is now in front of them with the Rhody Rams coming to town.
“That’s what we’re struggling with, and to be very honest with you, we’re struggling with it in practice,” Crowley said. “We’re trying to drive home that those habits carry over, and we got to do better jobs as coaches to continue to stress that and to continue to execute that. Right now, at times, two seconds leads to two minutes. We may make a play that doesn’t go great, and it stays with us so long that it ends up with two or three plays that don’t go our way. … It’s a point of frustration for me, but it’s an area we know we got to get better at.”
Both Bona and Loyola-Chicago struggled with turnovers in that affair too, with the latter committing 20 on the night — a number not far off from its season average of 17.3 per game. This is a big piece of the puzzle Crowley wants to shore up as he looks to get his offense humming at a more efficient rate.
“Some of it is rushing, some of it is us trying to make a play, some of it is that we’re dribbling too much,” Crowley said. “We’re just really shooting ourselves in the foot a lot, and turnovers are a big part of that. … Physical defenses, which we’re going to keep seeing, lead us to dribbling. And we don’t really have the physicality to dribble by people at this point, so we end up playing sideways a lot and slowing things and then getting stuck in bad situations. We’re going to see that physicality tomorrow, and hopefully we’re able to move the ball with the pass a little bit more and keep them off balance.”
Limiting the turnovers to get good looks on the offensive end is going to be crucial for the Bonnies as they are set to face a staunch Rhode Island team that has held opponents to 60 points or less in 10 of its 14 games this season.
But even if they do limit the turnovers, the danger will not disappear as the Rams’ attack will run through a number of key figures such as Harsimran Kaur, a 6-foot-4-inch senior that leads the Rhody in scoring with an average of 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
According to Crowley, Caitlin Frost will get Kaur as her assignment for the game, one that he knows will be no easy one.
“That’s a tough cover inside,” Crowley said. “(Kaur’s) been playing really well, obviously. … She’s very willing from 3 and she shoots 45% from out there. … So, first thing, we got to be there on the catch. We can’t let her see an easy one go in. She did that on Sunday in St. Louis, and went crazy. Then, we got to find a way to make her guard. We got to make her have to get out of the paint and not be able to rest on the defensive end. That’s always been a formula that’s worked for us. If we can make a good offensive player play defense, it can impact their offense.”
Another key matchup will belong to Zoe Shaw, who will have the task of covering Sophie Phillips, Rhode Island’s second-best scorer with an average of just over 10 points per game.
“She’s really good at getting them in transition, and her teammates are really good at finding her,” Crowley said of Phillips. “She does have a little length on Shaw, but I think Shaw’s done a pretty good job on perimeter defenders so far. But we all got to be aware, because if it’s just Shaw guarding her in transition, we need Zoe’s offense, and she’s going to be taking some shots. And if folks aren’t aware of Phillips, it just takes her to see one (go in) and then she’s hitting (shots) off ball screens, off staggers and really putting the pressure on.”
Shaw, who was awarded the title of A10 Rookie of the Week once already this season, has been a bright spot for the Bonnies as of late. In a team full of youth, Crowley noted that Shaw has risen above and will be a big factor in the team’s success this season.
“She’s the one that, of everybody really, has kind of found her rhythm,” Crowley said of Shaw. “There’s going to be bumps in the road. I mean, we’re asking a freshman to play point guard and play 35+ minutes and guard the other team’s best perimeter player. You say that out loud and you’re like, ‘wow, bumps are coming.’ … We had talked to her about the level you have to play at consistently, and she really took that to heart, and has done that the last three, four games. … So I think the experience has accelerated her with that, but I’m excited to see how long she can keep doing it.”
Top performances from Frost and Shaw will be key for Bona to get its home slate of A10 games off on the right foot. Dani Haskell’s offense will be a big factor as well, leading the team with 13.8 points per game.
The Bonnies and Rams tip-off at the Reilly Center on Jan. 2 at 1 p.m.
