By SPENCER BATES
PITTSBURGH, PA — For the first time since Jan. 12, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team will enter a game carrying with it the momentum of a win.
The Bonnies snapped their 11-game losing streak last time out against La Salle in a low-scoring 48-41 come-from-behind victory. However, the result was due to any major change in the team’s game plan or scheme. According to coach Jim Crowley, it was simply the process and the key factors that they have keyed in on all season, clicking at the right time.
“You’re not really into how we play and understand it until about early in your second year,” Crowley said. “That (understanding) has been accelerated for these guys because they’ve played so many minutes in year one. So, it’s good to see that. It’s hard when people really are pushing you to go hard, and maybe the ball isn’t going in, to stay with that discipline and trust you can get enough stops to create the opportunities. It’s a really hard thing.”
What has condemned Bona at times has been a level of frustration during games when shots aren’t falling. And when one domino would fall so too would the rest, with the defense faltering in the wake of struggling offense.
But against the Explorers, they stuck with it.
At halftime of that game, the Bonnies trailed 15-11 and only managed to score two points in the entire second quarter. But instead of folding, they kept at it, turned some stops into baskets on the other end and overcame a deficit to steal one on the road.
“I thought we really stuck to how we wanted to play and avoided the frustration of missed shots,” Crowley said. “I thought we had some good shots in the first half that didn’t drop. And we just kept defending and kept defending. Our defense gave us some opportunities and we took advantage of them and stayed consistent with the game plan and the effort. So, I was glad to see that. I think in two of our last three games, we’ve really done that.”
Dani Haskell finished with a game-high 19 points for Bona, but perhaps the biggest factor in the win was Caitlin Frost. Her 11 points and career-high 15 rebounds provided the team with a spark from the jump.
“She played really hard,” Crowley said. “That’s the kid we recruited and the kid we know she is. The hope is that she’s settled into that and continues to understand how much better we are as a group when she plays that way.”
And with it being the tail end of the regular season and the Atlantic 10 tournament not too far in the future, a win such as the one his team nabbed over La Salle, Crowley noted, has the capability to be a big boost for morale and a rebuff of the team’s belief in the system they are working to perfect.
“(The win) shows that (the system) works,” Crowley said. “We won a road game shooting under 30% (from the field). To me, that is a good thing. Obviously we want to make more shots, but when you can do that, it shows what defense and effort can do for you. And that’s something we’ve been pushing all year.”
Now, Bona will hope to carry that same effort, perhaps with an increased shooting percentage, into its penultimate game, and final road game, of the regular season at Duquesne.
The last time the Bonnies faced the Dukes, they were jumped on quickly, and after suffering a hefty initial blow, the defense never fully recovered and they eventually fell 80-46.
Another trend that Crowley noted his team has done well to minimize over the recent weeks has been its tendency to take early shots when there may have been better options open later in the shot clock. This is exactly the area Duquesne exploited earlier this season.
The key for Bona will be to make sure they don’t revert back to those habits, especially with the likes of Megan McConnell, statistically, the A10’s second-best scorer who leads the Dukes with 18.4 points per game, looking to get buckets in transition.
“A lot of their offense came from our offense,” Crowley said of the reverse fixture. “They had run-outs and we took early shots that they turned right into points. So the main message is, let’s play our way, let’s make some people defend, let’s let people get to where we want to get them, let’s set some screens, let’s reverse the ball. They absolutely dominated the pace of play when we played here, and if we try to do that again, it’s going to be a similar result. We want to try to limit the number of possessions and certainly move the ball a little bit more. To do that, you got to take care of it. That’s been the message.”
McConnell is flanked by a number of guards, each just as capable of scoring, but Bona will also need to make sure Duquesne’s bigs don’t find a groove as well. Last time out, Gabby Hutcherson and Kiandra Browne each impacted the game down low and negated the presences of Frost and Hannah Richardson. According to Crowley, the best way to negate the impact of the Dukes’ bigs will be to make them defend and vacate the paint.
“If we’re making them defend a little bit, I think it will open up some offensive rebounding opportunities to us,” Crowley said. “Both Hutchison and Brown just tried to impose themselves, physically and verbally, on us in the first game. So, how do we handle that, and do we take away what they’re good at? We have certainly seen our folks rise to challenges and are excited to see that tomorrow.”
With some wind in its sails, St. Bonaventure will be looking to avenge the heavy defeat it suffered in front of its home crowd and spoil the final home game of the regular season for Duquesne at the same time. The sides will tip off in the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on Feb. 26 at 11 a.m.
