By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — If there is one thing that both the St. Bonaventure and Davidson women’s basketball teams have in common, it is that both are looking to avenge Atlantic 10 losses to Richmond.
On Jan. 15, the Bonnies entered the Spiders’ web and were handed a hefty 98-60 defeat. Three days prior, they fed on the Wildcats, beating them 63-41.
Those two victories have helped place Richmond atop of the A10 table based on overall record and Bona coach Jim Crowley knows Davidson — just 0.5 games behind first place in the conference — won’t be likely to let the loss go unvindicated.
“First of all, I’m expecting a fairly angry team,” Crowley said of the Wildcats. “They’ve had a week to stew on the Richmond loss and they’re a very competitive and mature group. They do a really good job offensively. (Issy) Morgan kind of gets it all going, … (Charlise) Dunn had a great game here against us last year, and (Millie) Prior is really tough inside. Their two kids off the bench, (Kyra Bruyndoncx) comes in firing and (Candice Lienafa) is really aggressive. For a young player, (Katie) Donovan does a little bit everything, and they take advantage of it. Their offense is built to find the matchup they like and to go at it. So, we’ve got to be way better than we’ve been, to be very honest, in our last few games, defensively, with being consistent with our basics and being able to execute those.”
According to Crowley, the offense of Richmond in the team’s most recent game caused a plethora of issues for them defensively. But he is hopeful that experience, albeit an unfortunate one with the loss, will encourage his players to be more sound while protecting their own basket against Davidson.
“We saw a really good offensive performance Wednesday by Richmond and it did not impact our offense. It did (impact) our defense, we never really got better the whole game. So we’re just looking to be able to execute our defensive game plan while we keep our offensive pace high. They’re going to defend a little different than Richmond. So, we’ve got to be able to adjust to whether they’re switching or denying, or however they do. We’ve got to be able to continue to read the game and play it at the pace we need to. … We certainly did that a lot of the game against Richmond. We just have got to be better defensively.”
Donovan, Dunn, Morgan and Lienafa lead the offensive charge for Davidson, each averaging over 10 points per game. But what makes the quartet so dangerous is not just that they score, but how efficiently they do so as not one of them shoots below 38% from the floor. In fact, that goes for just about the entirety of the Wildcats’s offense. Of the 10 players that average double-digit minutes on the floor, only three fall below that threshold of 38%.
Crowley will be looking for a similar level of offensive efficiency from his team which was able to end its streak of slow starts with 21 points against the Spiders in the opening frame. But he is also wary that the focus cannot solely be on the offense, it will need stops too.
“I thought we had a much better mindset (against Richmond), but then again, we gave up 31 points (in the first quarter),” Crowley said. “There’s things that we can do better to not hurt ourselves. … As we’re growing, we’ve got to understand the opportunities, when they’re there, to raise our level. … (The Richmond loss) was good for our players. It wasn’t good to go through, but it was good for our players to see that’s what it takes at that level.”
Bona is poised to look towards its own emerging trio of stars against Davidson. Dani Haskell, Zoe Shaw and Caitlin Frost, despite the loss, still all managed to finish with double-figure points against the Spiders. Crowley noted that this is just another sign of them growing together and learning how to play off one another in the best way possible.
“We talked about being able to stay on the floor,” Crowley said. “Davidson has a lot of different weapons. We’ve got to do the same or we become pretty easy to guard. We’re just asking our freshmen to be main weapons, which they got to do it. So, I think they’re growing at that and now they’ve got to understand how to do that while playing really hard on the defensive end.”
St. Bonaventure and Davidson are set to tip-off on Jan. 18 at the Reilly Center at 1 p.m.
