By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — In the game of basketball one mistake can change the entire outcome of a game. But a quarter’s worth of negative moments condemns a team.
That is precisely what the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team experienced in its 58-49 loss to George Washington on Saturday.
If you were to negate the 21-5 offensive barrage that the Revolutionaries put together in the second quarter, in which they benefited from strong play in the post and some lax defensive minutes from the Bonnies, the hosts won the remaining three quarters by a score of 44-37.
But all it took was 10 minutes of sloppy basketball to flip that on its head.
“The obvious thing is that it was a really bad second quarter,” Bona coach Jim Crowley said. “And we’ve seen it before, where frustration takes over, so we rush some offensive things. That then puts pressure on our defense and the little snowball becomes an avalanche. It’s something we got to, as coaches, do a better job with.”
St. Bonaventure guard Hannah Richardson (33) puts up a 3-point attempt in the face of a George Washington defender. Richardson scored a career-high 13 points against the Revolutionaries. (Spencer Bates)
Entering the affair, Crowley pointed to two specific areas that were going to be key if his side were to put a stop to its losing streak. The first was rebounding. Unfortunately for him, the Revs wasted no time establishing a dominance on the boards, grabbing six offensive rebounds in the first four minutes of the game. And while they only grabbed nine more throughout the remainder of the affair, the Bonnies found themselves in an uphill battle on the defensive glass as well, losing the overall rebounding battle 47-26.
“I thought, early, we should have had a better lead and had a chance to establish some things there and we were watching,” Crowley said. “I thought we watched a lot in the second quarter, both offensively and defensively. There were two (GW offensive rebounds) in the second half that were really, really big. We had forced misses and one of the things that’s kind of happened all year is that we touch it and we don’t pull (the rebound) in. So, we know that’s something that we can improve in the spring and even as the season winds down.”
“I think some of it is (physicality) and some of it’s just going and getting it. We seem a step slow to the ball at times, so I think it’s a twofold thing. And especially when you’re not as big as your opponent, you’ve got to be really, really good with the fundamentals.”
The other key Crowley had for the game was to not allow GW, which has a plethora of size and strength in its roster, to get comfortable in the paint and, instead, force them into taking shots from beyond 15 feet.
This plan was also blown up early as the Revs muscled their way inside, most effectively while constructing what ended up as an extended 18-0 scoring run that lasted the majority of the second frame. They finished with 28 points in the paint compared to Bona’s 16.
“It was layups, it was and-1s, we were poor on both sides,” Crowley said. “We were poor with our offensive execution. We weren’t where we needed to be defensively and we dug that big hole. One of the concerns was them backing us down and powering over us. I didn’t think we allowed that. … When we trapped their forwards, I thought we were pretty effective. We weren’t consistent, we gave up six points trapping their guards where we didn’t rotate over. And those points stand out a little bit more when you have such a bad second quarter.”
However, it was not all doom and gloom for Bona. There were flashes in the second half in which Crowley noted his team played with a superb level of urgency. But, in the grand scheme of things, he would have liked to see that from the beginning.
“When you’re young, there’s endless tomorrows,” Crowley said. “So the urgency, maybe, isn’t always there. And without a lot of older players, it’s hard to incorporate that in. I think we see that a lot where we just don’t have the urgency to take one more step, or to make one more box-out or to make one more pass. … that’s something we were pushing to grow into.”
St. Bonaventure guard Zoe Shaw (32) drives through contact in the paint while looking to go up for a layup. (Spencer Bates)
Another positive sign was yet another impressive performance from Hannah Richardson, who set a new career-high in points as she led Bona with 13 on the afternoon, surpassing her previous best of 11 which was set in her last game.
“She’s getting better, and honestly, I think she could be even better,” Crowley said. “I think there’s some things she leaves out there … but as I’ve said, she’s been able to get consistent reps. She wasn’t able to get that all year. And now that she’s getting it, she’s seeing more good things happen.”
St. Bonaventure will look to take the positives from the loss and expand upon them as it will try to put an end to its nine-game losing streak next time out against Davidson away from home. That game is set to tip off at 1 p.m. on Feb. 16.
