By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — For the first time since Nov. 22, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team will play a game on its home court.
No planes, no buses and finally a crowd that will be pulling for them.
But not only is its next game special because it’s in the Reilly Center, but because it is the official start of the Atlantic 10 portion of the schedule. Yes, the Bonnies already have an A10 game under their belt, but their game at Saint Louis was one stuffed in the middle of non-conference play. It is strictly A10 opposition from here on out now and it all starts with a date against a red-hot George Washington side.
“We have to make sure we still have our white uniforms, we haven’t seen them in a while,” Bona head coach Jim Crowley joked.
The return home is important for the Bonnies. After such a long hiatus, they can play in a comfortable environment for one of their biggest games of the regular season. And ahead of the matchup, Crowley is fully leaning into not just the RC and Bona faithful giving his team the advantage but good ol’ mother nature as well as a winter storm has made St. Bonaventure the frozen fortress that the A10 dreads.
“There’s obviously a comfort in playing at home,” Crowley said. “We get great support on the road, but there’s just something that you hope is good about playing at home. Plus, it’s not a real pleasant time to travel. That’s added stress hopefully for our opponent, and hopefully is an advantage for us.”
Come tip-off, it will have been 11 days since Bona last played, leaving a plethora of opportunities for the minds of the Bonnies to wander away from basketball. But luckily, Crowley noted his players have been chomping at the bit to get back in action and the message he’s giving them ahead of their true conference opener is to just keep taking steps in the right direction.
“How do we keep getting better?” Crowley said. “I think we’ve shown some pretty good improvement. There’s some things that have cost us that we have to improve on, and how do we keep getting better at those, but also keep growing the things we are good at? Obviously, we’ve done some good things, but we got to want more.”
Getting their first conference win of the season would be a significant holiday present for the Bonnies. But if they are going to do so, they must find a way to execute late and put games to bed when they are in the driver’s seat.
In the early goings of the season Bona pulled off a handful of narrow victories, spinning a story of resilience. But as the non-con wore on, those slim wins kept coming, even against teams that it would have liked to defeat handedly.
Crowley has taken notice too. He pointed out how against Howard they scored 23 points in the third quarter and held a nine point lead, but the team’s struggles to sustain its advantage were exposed as it conceded 21 in that same quarter and found itself down four points to start the final frame in a game it would go on to lose.
“In a lot of those games, we’re seeing really good responses to stuff, but … there’s opportunities for us to separate and a lot of it is coming down to the defensive end,” Crowley said. “While we’re certainly not allowing 80 points a game or anything like that, there’s opportunities to execute on the defensive end which would give us a good chance to separate. … So that’s something we want to keep getting better at.”
The Revs will look to put what Bona hopes to be a renewed sense of defensive resilience to the test. Winners of seven consecutive games, GW is led by Preseason Atlantic 10 Second-Team member Gabby Reynolds, who is the only player on her team averaging double figures with 14.8 points per game. But don’t be fooled, the Revs get a significant amount of scoring across the board.
A significant amount of that comes from beyond the 3-point arc. GW has taken the fourth-most 3-point attempts of any team in the A10 and are shooting 33% as a team from range. The flip side to that being that Bona has the second-best 3-point defense of any team in the conference.
“They’re very willing to share the ball,” Crowley said. “That’s how they play to their strengths. (Kamari) Sims is a very good shooter. (Colleen Phiri) can really shoot it, and again, they’re shooting really confidently right now. They drive the ball very well and if we’re late reacting to those drives, those folks are going to get rhythm 3s. If we’re early with our positioning and team-defending the drive so we don’t have to react and we can be a little more proactive to shooters, then I feel like we’ll have a good chance contesting them.”
Reynolds may be the biggest scoring threat for George Washington, but what Crowley has keyed in on more is the mismatches that if left unchecked will cause significant damage. Sims and Emma Theodorsson are both forwards that operate more like guards. Their ability to be multifaceted doubles the threat they pose.
“They present a really unique forward situation in that Sims is probably their secondary, if not, their primary playmaker, and she’s a forward,” Crowley said. “Then they bring Emma in, who is also a forward, but her first shot is almost always a 3. She’s extremely confident right now, she’s playing off the bounce and she gets to the post. So they have a lot of folks that (leave you wondering) ‘how do we match up with them?’”
Ultimately, the battle between the Bonnies and the Revs is going to come down to the defensive end. Who will break first? Who will make the timely run? Who will make the better of their matchups?
St. Bonaventure will hope fortune falls its way as it looks to get its first win tally of the A10 season at home on Dec. 31 at 1 p.m.
