By SPENCER BATES
AMHERST, MA — After enduring a consistent offensive display from UMass in the first half, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team rallied, connected on a haymaker of its own before suffering a knockout blow from its hosts.
In an attempt to avenge its initial loss to UMass on Jan. 12, the Bonnies saw a similar story starting to develop in the first half of the reverse fixture as they just could not find a stop on defense. A consistent offensive output from the Minutewomen, after both teams stumbled out of the gates, saw them go up by 10 points by the end of a first quarter in which they strung together an 18-4 scoring run at one point.
They were then able to sustain that differential through the second quarter and went into the half with a 10-point lead.
At the break, the stat sheet spun the tale of Bona’s woes as it had 12 turnovers and just nine total rebounds. It conceded 11 second-chance points and 14 points in the paint to its two.
But there was a silver lining.
The Bonnies were 10-for-22 from the field in the first half and 6-for-12 from 3-point range, meaning they were effective when they managed to get shots. And that was exactly the springboard they used coming out of the intermission.
St. Bonaventure women’s basketball forward Caitlin Frost (21) looks to drive into the paint against UMass’ Lilly Ferguson (22). (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
As the second half got underway, the skies seemingly opened up inside the Mullins Center as Bona rained down a barrage of 3s with great efficiency. Down 39-26, it managed to put together a 17-4 run in just over four minutes of game time with big 3s from Mackenzie Pettinelli, Hannah Richardson, Zoe Shaw and Dani Haskell.
In fact, it was the second 3-pointer from Richardson, who set a new career-high in points with 11 against the Minutewomen, in that run that tied the game at 43 apiece.
“It’s something she can do,” Bona coach Jim Crowley said of Richardson’s emerging comfort shooting the deep ball. “We were taking really good shots. We were taking them from ball movement, we were taking them from drawing the defense. They were clearly not letting us get to the rim. They were doing a good job of taking charges, and we adjusted and kicked it and people were ready. She’s getting into a groove a little bit.”
The Bonnies had just managed to decimate the substantial deficit it faced with just under half of the third quarter still to play.
Unfortunately for them, that meant that there was still time for UMass to adjust.
The hosts decided to get in on the action and rained down a number of 3s themselves, draining a total of six in the third quarter and closed the frame with a 15-0 run. Combined, the Bonnies and Minutewomen went an incredible 10-for-12 from deep in the third quarter alone.
“We missed an opportunity in the first quarter to certainly not be down 10,” Crowley said. “We gave away possessions, which got them scores. We kind of steadied the boat in the second quarter, and … in the third and they came out with great pace and really executed our offense the way we like to. We were just on offense a lot more than we were on defense, which we talked about a lot. Then, to UMass’ credit, they executed, made some shots, we had a couple bad turnovers and we were playing a lot more defense the rest of that game. … But we saw some things that work for us and now we’ve got to be able to do them longer.”
St. Bonaventure women’s basketball guard Zoe Shaw (32) looks to pass the ball down low Caitlin Frost (21). (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
And in the fourth quarter, the snowball just continued to roll as the Bona defense was berated by the UMass offense and, specifically, Yahmani McKayle who drained a career-high five 3-pointers and tallied a game-high 21 points. Allie Palmieri and Megan Olbrys provided 12 and 10 points respectively for the Minutewomen as well as they proceeded to win the final frame by a 23-11 margin.
“They didn’t do anything we hadn’t worked on,” Crowley said. “We were shooting the ball pretty well, that should have been a two, four-point game at the end of the first quarter, but it is what it is and we got to keep looking to improve. … They shot 56% (from the field). We just got to find a way to guard better.”
St. Bonaventure will look to make those adjustments ahead of its next fixture against George Washington on Feb. 8 at home with tip-off set for 1 p.m.
