By SPENCER BATES
CLEVELAND, OH — The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team has faced its fair share of challenges so far this season — and they have shown the ability to answer when presented with them.
However, the challenges the Bonnies are set to face over the course of the next few days will be their toughest yet, albeit due to different circumstances.
Bona is heading to Cleveland over the Thanksgiving break to take part in Cleveland State’s hosted tournament. But what makes preparing for this mid-season tournament so unique is that instead of preparing for one team and then quickly for another depending on a win or a loss, the Bonnies play all three teams in the span of four days.
The Bonnies are entering the tournament on the back of a loss to UAlbany, their first loss of the season. But the silver lining of the defeat is that it showed Crowley what his team needs to continue working on.
“We’ve talked a lot about how we have to be able to out-execute teams that execute well,” Crowley said. “That’s going to be the case tomorrow night as well. We didn’t do that for 40 minutes against Albany. And even with as much we did, if we had done it the last five minutes, it could have been a very different game. But that’s why you play these teams. Both (Cleveland State and UAlbany) have a good chance to win their leagues, and that’s the kind of competition we want to go against to find out about ourselves and see how we can get better.”
That sort of resilience will be all the more important as they prepare for the first game of the tournament, against hosts Cleveland State.
“They’re older, their leading scorer is a kid that’s been with the program for a few years, their second leading scorer was at Iowa State and then at Montana, and their third leading scorer was a an all-conference kid in the MAAC … so they’ve all been through some stuff, and have some experience and familiarity. They play different, they zone, it’s what they do. So, that presents a challenge, and they’re just very good, and they’re even better at home. So it’s really going to be a good challenge for us, in a lot of ways. Not just because of their experience and their talent, but in how do we take away (Colbi Maples and Izabella Zingaro) without giving easy ones to other people? How do we handle the zone? We haven’t shot the ball very well so far, so can we come out of that? There’s some things that give us the opportunity to see if we’re getting better. This is a very quality opponent on their floor.”
Cleveland State is led by the likes of Maples, Zingaro and Jada Leonard. As guards, Maples — the Horizon League’s Preseason Player of the Year — and Leonard are averaging 16.6 and 11.8 points, respectively, and combine for an average of 6.2 steals per game.
And as if their guards weren’t making things tricky enough, at center the Vikings have Zingaro, who clocks in at 6-4 and is averaging 13.6 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds per contest, only slightly ahead of Ayisse Magassa, who averages an even six boards per game.
In terms of Maples, specifically, Crowley pointed out that she works extremely hard to get the points she does. She put that on display in her team’s most recent game against Big 10 opponent Northwestern. Now while Cleveland State lost that fixture, Maples still racked up 24 points.
“She’s a very good one-on-one player,” Crowley said of Maples. “Maples can score against really good defenses and that’s what we got to force. That 24 points she had against Northwestern, she earned a lot of it. If that happens tomorrow night, that happens, but we can’t give her baskets. We can’t have breakdowns on her. We can’t hold her in check and then have a breakdown. We can’t let her feel good. We can’t relax on her. She’s as good as any guard we’re going to see all year. So it’s a good opportunity to see how we do guarding her.”
But while the Bonnies must prepare for the Vikings first and foremost, in the back of Crowley’s mind are the teams they play so soon after. They play Radford on Nov. 28 and Valparaiso on Nov. 29, less than 24 hours later. Fortunately, those games have been in the front of the minds of his staff.
“I’ve looked at some numbers, but it’s good to have a good staff,” Crowley said. “Jim Brunelli has Cleveland State, Tiara (Johnson) has Radford, and Kelcie (Rombach) has Valpo. And the moment that that game ends tomorrow night, the players will be handed the Radford scout. We still have two days to prep for (Radford), with all day Thursday, but then with Valpo, it’s a really quick turnaround. … But that’s why these are (tournaments) are really good, you see how quick you can scout, how you can adjust. You have to play a few other people because of the games and you see how they handle things. We need the depth we’ve talked about.”
With this tournament being as unique an experience as it is, there is a lot that Crowley is hoping his players take away. The challenges it creates will test how quickly this year’s players can mentally shift gears, how they respond to setbacks after significant minutes, and how they come together as a team over that time.
“We’re together for three days, and there’s going to be ups and downs as a group, but individually how do we handle that, how do we look out for each other,” Crowley said. “The road can pull you together or pull you apart. We’re hoping that it, obviously, pulls us together. We’re continuing to grow on the mental side. How quickly can we prepare and follow through with a game plan? How can we get to where we out-execute teams that execute well, and we’re going to get a chance to see some of that in quick order this week. … So, there’s a lot of really positive things, and we’ve got to make sure that we keep getting better as a basketball team, too.”
St. Bonaventure and Cleveland State will tip off on Nov. 26 at 6 p.m.
