By SPENCER BATES
RICHMOND, VA — The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team will look to limit its self-induced mistakes as it hits the road to face Richmond, one of the hottest teams in the Atlantic 10.
Last time out, Bona coach Jim Crowley admitted that it was a number of mental lapses that led to his side’s loss at the hands of UMass on Jan. 12.
His Bonnies were able to fight back a number of times to put the game in contention, but self-inflicted errors led to another tally in the loss column.
Now, as they are set to enter the nest of the Spiders on Jan. 15, he will be looking for the mental side of the game to be cleaned up especially against an experienced side with some big wins under its belt.
“Richmond is very experienced and very experienced in their system,” Crowley said on St. Bonaventure’s Coach Jim Crowley Radio Show. “They pass the ball the best of anyone in the conference. They have great length across the board, and they can all shoot it so we can’t let the length have an impact on our offense, because that impacted us a little bit (against UMass). We got to grow from that, we have to defend as a group and we can’t get frustrated if they hit a few in a row. They are playing really well. This past week, they beat George Mason and they won at Davidson convincingly. So, we’ve got our work cut out for us. We’ve got to be able to force them into some extended offensive possessions, we can’t give away possessions. We’ve got to find ways to get open looks and be confident in those. We got to find ways to get to the rim or the foul line to find some points.”
Points under the basket were difficult for the Bonnies to come by in their 67-58 loss to the Minutewomen.
UMass won the points-in-the-paint category by a whopping 44-16 margin and dominated on the boards as well, winning the rebounding battle 40-26. This is an area that Crowley admitted got away from him and his team whose typical goal is to get down low and create points there.
“We really didn’t get anything around the rim and credit to UMass on that,” Crowley said. “Some of that was a coaching error. We were getting a lot of good looks from 3 in the third quarter, and that helped us get back in it. We kept getting them in the fourth quarter, and they didn’t drop. But we got the ball inside, especially in the second quarter, but in the first half (overall), pretty good. There were some positive things there and we got away from it. We’re at our best if we can find scores around the rim, get to the foul line and then that frees up our shooting from the perimeter.”
The duo of Maggie Doogan and Rachel Ullstrom have done the majority of the scoring for the Spiders this season, both averaging over 16 points per game. Alongside them, Addie Budnik contributes over 10 points per game.
But not only does the trio score, they do so with great efficiency, as none shoot under 49.6% from the floor. In fact, they are three of five typical faces on the floor for Richmond that shoot at or above that mark.
The Bonnies will be looking towards their trio of scorers heavily against the Spiders. Dani Haskell, who tied her season and career-high in points against UMass with 29, and Zoe Shaw will be looking to carry over their excellent shooting performances from their last fixture. Caitlin Frost will be the one Crowley will look to get involved near the rim.
Bona’s game against the Spiders is the first in a string of four that Crowley knows will be a true test for his side as all four of their next opponents currently sit in the top six spots in the conference.
But not only is he looking for development from his players during this time, but from himself and his coaching staff as well.
“I think this is a really good opportunity to see what our competitive nature is,” Crowley said. “We’re playing a number of the top teams in the league. So, what do we got? How do we approach that? Do we correct this first quarter thing we have going on? Do we continue to have the grit we’ve had the last three games? Do we start to move the ball a little bit more with the pass? Do we shore up our rebounding? Do we continue to get good play from some of our young players? Do some other people emerge? It’s a really good opportunity to see where some things are at and how well we’re getting better and how we as coaches continue to motivate, develop and find ways to put people in the best spot possible.”
The Bonnies will tip-off against the Spiders on Jan. 15 at 6 p.m.
