By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — After consecutive losses, which were heartbreaking for different reasons, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team was looking for answers.
Its games against Fordham and George Mason were its first consecutive losses since Nov. 26 as Bona always managed to find a way to bounce back into the win column in losses since then. Those defeats brewed frustration, something head coach Jim Crowley hoped would act as a fire beneath this team going into their most recent game against La Salle.
Unfortunately for him, it had the opposite reaction. Instead of being propelled, his Bonnies became mired in that frustration, leading to a third consecutive loss.
“We were really out of character,” Crowley said. “We gave up more points in a quarter than we (typically) give up in a half. We gave up more points and a half than we give up in a game. It was 20 minutes of really poor play. Poor play is going to happen, but you got to get out of it sooner. You got to get out of it faster. … So, I think the mindset for us is to channel that frustration towards learning and towards understanding that if we don’t play at the intensity level consistently, every night is going to be a real challenge.”
The typical big-minutes players struggled to find their stride. Laycee Drake finished with a team-high 16 points, but also had five turnovers in the 18 minutes she played. So, down 28 points with 15 minutes to go, Crowley pulled the plug on the starters for the remainder of the game and gave the bench a chance to see the game out.
But the lineup of Mallory Heise, Olivia DiFranco, Kylie Buckley, Brillana Boyd and Kaylee Krysztof did more than just guide their team over the finish line, they injected life into the game. They cut their deficit by 20 points and were within striking distance in the final minute of play.
The bench has been nothing short of an asset for Crowley this season and the 47 points he got from that unit against La Salle was its pièce de résistance. The key now is to get that kind of production on a consistent basis, and hopefully not at the expense of the starters playing poorly.
“With everything, it’s about consistency,” Crowley said. “Knowing we can do that, and continuing to see that, and knowing that as a group and individually, you can produce, that’s where we’re working to get better. We just got to, individually and collectively, do things longer and more often.”
It’s a good thing that iron sharpens iron.
Crowley spoke, even before the season started, about how great it is to have depth on his team. Not just for when it comes to game day, but for practices as well. Being able to have players that can challenge and push one another is important to him and it is exactly what he needed to see in practice following the La Salle loss.
“For these two days we put competitive things in there,” Crowley said. “We had backed off that a little bit as we got later in the year. But we felt that we needed to get that in there and really put those demands on people. Especially with younger teams (it’s important) to, every day, have that competitive focus and recognize the positives of when you have it and what it holds you back from when you don’t. So, that’s the one thing we made sure we did these past couple days and hopefully we’ll see a benefit from it.”
Following the challenging days of practice, Crowley will hope to see his team renewed going into Dayton for its next game.
The Flyers currently have a 3-6 record in conference play and are 10-10 overall on the season, which comes as a bit of a shock to Crowley, who spoke highly of his soon-to-be opposition.
“It’s unique, you watch them and you can’t believe they’re 3-6,” Crowley said. “They play a lot of people, they have multiple Power Four transfers, they got good guards and they have solid kids inside. Their length, I mean, Richmond may be the only other team that has that kind of length. So if you don’t do a good job on the boards, or if you don’t take away the paint, or if you give them extra possessions, it can be a really long day.”
Bona’s defensive emphasis has the ability to play a major factor against Dayton seeing as that the Flyers commit just shy of the most turnovers per game of any team in the A10 (18.7). Now, the Bonnies are in the bottom half of teams in the conference in steals per game, but if his team is able to slow its opposition down and get run-outs the other way, Crowley believes they can find success.
“We’re at our best offensively when we generate turnovers and when we get stops, and that was one of the things that hurt us against La Salle,” Crowley said. “We couldn’t string together stops, so we could never create a run for ourselves. I do think if we can keep Dayton in the half court and be really active defensively, we can create some opportunities to disrupt some of the things they like to do. … But (Dayton) is coming off a tough loss for against Rhody, so I’m sure they’re going to really come after us and we got to be ready for it.”
Individually, Nayo Lear leads the Flyers offensively with 15.4 points per game. She is the only one on her team averaging double figure points but that does not mean the rest of the Dayton offense is anything to brush aside. Much like the Bonnies, a good portion of its scoring comes from its depth. Six different players average over six points per game for the Flyers and their rotation goes at least 10 deep, meaning that the defensive job will need to be that much more sound.
“Nine out of 10 (players for Dayton) shoot 3s and they all offensive rebound,” Crowley said. “The two guards are really crafty and physical. If you let some of their kids get some easy baskets or put backs or transition points, now that 3 looks that much easier. We cannot let them shoot the ball comfortably. We’ve got to be able to team-rebound and limit their scores off offensive rebounds. Then, we’ve got to make them work on defense, because if they can get going downhill through transition or in the half court, their size is just going to become a consistent factor.”
St. Bonaventure will look to put an end to their losing streak on the road against the Flyers on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.
