By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — After showing flashes of what its true capability is as a team last time out, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team is looking to take those moments and extend them against George Washinton.
After slowly losing their grip on the game throughout the first half against UMass on Feb. 5, the Bonnies came out in the second half firing on all cylinders and erased a substantial deficit with some excellent offensive minutes. Unfortunately for them, the burst eventually ground to a halt before the third quarter was over, leading to UMass regaining control and rolling to a victory.
But those moments were not a fluke. According to Bona coach Jim Crowley, what he saw in those moments was a true microcosm of what he believes this team is truly capable of. Now, it is all a matter of taking the success it had in those minutes and extending them to produce successful quarters, halves and games.
“I thought, in the second quarter, we played the game the way we want to and need to,” Crowley said. “And, to me, that carried over into the third quarter, at least the start of it. The simple version is we were playing more offense than (UMass was). That’s one of the things that we’ve talked a lot about, is we play a lot of defense. Whether it be through turnovers or quick shots or offensive rebounds allowed. So, I thought we found a rhythm there. The shots went in, which can be contagious. (We’re) disappointed we couldn’t maintain it. But also, credit to UMass. They made a couple really nice plays late in the third quarter to just recapture momentum.”
Playing a big part for Bona in those good offensive minutes against UMass was freshman Hannah Richardson, who set a new career-high with 11 points against the Minutewomen.
Crowley has spoken before about how important it is for the younger, less experienced players he has on his team to get consistent time on the floor. Richardson is an example of that. In her first year playing college basketball, the Auckland, New Zealand native had to battle through some injury issues early in the season which derailed a consistent start to her campaign. Now that she’s healthy, Crowley, and the rest of the Bona faithful for that matter, is seeing what she is capable of.
“She’s been able to get some consistent time now,” Crowley said. “Hannah is a talented kid, we’ve known that, but sometimes it just takes a little while to get used to things. … Honestly, I don’t think we have done as good a job as we should, as coaches, to get even some more of her offensive things out and continue to work with her and Caitlin (Frost) playing off one another. Those are some things we know that are going to happen and hopefully very soon.”
“(Her size and ability to shoot the ball) stretches (a defense) out. If you stay in, as we saw in UMass, she’s able to knock it down. She’s finding her spots and I think she’s got even more to show around the rim, utilizing her dribble better and continuing to use her body.”
But as Richardson and the rest of Bona’s offensive prowess may have shined in that third frame, it all came in an effort to negate the damage UMass had done early.
Of the Bonnies’ 17 turnovers against the Minutewomen, eight came in the first quarter alone. So, if they are to achieve their goal of getting a high level of offense from the jump, in order to build a lead instead of trying to claw their way out of a hole, Crowley noted they will need to find a consistent pace and not allow themselves to get sped up or slowed down.
“We get playing too fast … lax passing there’s just a lot of times where we hurt ourselves,” Crowley said. “We usually correct it within a game. It’s just when it goes bad, it goes bad multiple times in a row. In the first quarter (against UMass), we had three straight (turnovers) early in the quarter. Those are the things that, obviously, are holding us back from some better offensive performances.”
But not only will the offense need to find a groove if it is to have similar levels of success against George Washington, but the defense will need to be on its game as well. Dani Haskell, Zoe Shaw and the rest of the Bona guard corps will have the task of forcing the Revolutionaries’ guard duo of Makayla Andrews and Gabby Reynolds into making uncomfortable shots.
“A huge key for us is our ability to keep them out of the paint and to keep them high when they do get in the paint so they’re not near the rim,” Crowley said of Andrews and Reynolds. “They’re really good pivotors in the paint, they have patience in there, Andrews has some really good size, so we’ve got to really team-defend them and keep them higher up the lane so they’re taking 10, 12, 13-footers instead of four or five-footers.”
It won’t just be the Revs’ guards looking to occupy space in the lane though, as forwards Sara Lewis, Paige Mott and Maxine Engel will all look to make an impact and pose a challenge for Bona’s Richardson, Frost, and Gabby Robinson Forde, especially on the glass.
“The reality of it is we have struggled all year with rebounding,” Crowley said. “It is what it is. We’ve got out of position a lot of times before shots have gone up, we haven’t consistently made contact there. … Whoever wins the rebounding battle in this game will win. So, we know how important it is. … We’ve got to be more disciplined, we got to be better containing the ball, not reacting to it. There’s no question that we should be boxing out.”
Whether or not those calls will be taken in and executed by the St. Bonaventure players will be seen as it gets set to take on George Washington on Feb. 8 at 1 p.m. in the Reilly Center, one of the team’s final three Atlantic 10 regular season games at home.
