By SPENCER BATES
PITTSBURGH, PA — In its final road game of the regular season, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team suffered its second loss of the year to Duquesne.
However, unlike the first time the sides met, the Bonnies forced the Dukes to play them on their own terms and achieved their goals of limiting turnovers and not letting the game get completely taken out of their hands.
Duquesne still wound up winning 74-48, a similar margin to the first time it defeated Bona, but it was not able to reap the benefits of many mistakes by its guests on the day.
“I think we had 25 (turnovers) in the first game and they scored 33 points off of that, compared to this game, we had nine and they scored just eight points off of them,” Bona coach Jim Crowley said. “So again, we cleaned up stuff that really hurt us in the first game and they still found ways to beat us.”
But while the Bonnies were able to take away the points the Dukes were able to score on the back of their mistakes, an outright, incredibly efficient offensive display by the hosts saw them over the line.
Duquesne shot over 51% from the field as a team and just shy of 43% from 3-point range and were led by Megan McConnell’s game-high 25 points, which she tallied shooting 58% (10-for-17) from the floor. Still, despite how well the Dukes’ offense hummed, the way in which Bona forced them to operate, pleased Crowley.
“I thought we gave ourselves a good opportunity,” Crowley said. “For the most part we stuck with how we wanted to play. Sometimes they’re complicated things, sometimes they’re simple things (that lead to a loss). They made more shots than we did. I didn’t think we gave them that many easy ones. I think (McConnell) had one or two layups compared to a half dozen the first time we played them. I think (Jerni Kiaku) had two compared to four the first time we played them. They shot the ball well, credit to them.”
St. Bonaventure guard Hannah Richardson (33) gets set for a 3-point attempt while closely guarded by Duquesne’s Kiandra Browne (22). (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
McConnell was a big problem for the Bona defense, an area in which Crowley noted he and his coaching staff attempted to shake some things up based on the matchups, and while some things worked in their favor, sometimes the talent of the Duquesne roster shined through. McConnell, when she wasn’t knocking down a 3 in the face of a defender, was able to get a quick first step and fly into the lane, making her a maddening matchup for any Bona player who took on the challenge.
But McConnell did not act alone in making life hard for the Bonnies’ defense. Gabby Hutcherson was effective in the paint and Kiaku was able to find some open lanes to the basket as well.
“We tried to mix up our coverage a little bit and I thought we did a pretty good job of taking away their initial thing, but then again you have to account for Meg,” Crowley said. “We tried to do some different things, she hit at least three 3s when we were there, we could have, maybe, stepped up a bit but then you risk her driving. In the first half, any time that we got a little bit out of position, they made the 3. Hutcherson had a really good day, made a couple really tough shots inside. Obviously we’re not just looking for moral victories, but we’ve gotten better. In the first game (against Duquesne), they dominated us and the score doesn’t look like it, but I thought we competed really hard, we faded down the stretch, and we had some looks that just didn’t go down.”
But even as the Bona defense was suffering one blow after another, Crowley noted how satisfied he was seeing it gradually adapt to take away some of the lanes that were left open as the game progressed.
“I thought we did a really good job on (Kiaku), she got two early (baskets) and then we really didn’t let her get to the rim very much. We did a good job, especially in the third and at the start of the fourth quarter, of getting to where we needed to get and so she wasn’t able to get real easy rhythm runs to the basket. We gave her two in the first half, but I thought in the second half we did a really nice job of not giving that away.”
As for the Bona offense, it was led by Mackenzie Pettinelli’s team-high 13 points. Finding her range early, Pettinelli shot 50% from deep along with grabbing two rebounds, dishing out two assists and swiping two steals, all while turning the ball over just once. Dani Haskell and Caitlin Frost contributed 10 points apiece behind Pettinelli.
St. Bonaventure has just one game left in the regular season, a home affair against Dayton on March 1 at 1 p.m., before it heads off to the Atlantic 10 tournament.
