By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — For the longest time, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team just wasn’t able to get over the hump.
Following a rough stretch of minutes in the first half in which offense was scarce and the defense was porous, the Bonnies found themselves chasing down Drexel in their WNIT First Round matchup.
What resulted in a 69-67 overtime victory over the Bonnies began as a cat-and-mouse affair.
Their deficit ballooned to as many at 10 points early in the second quarter.
As the game progressed, Bona was able to string together some solid possessions, but as soon as it got a glimpse of daylight, Drexel slammed the door shut. That was exactly what happened early in the fourth quarter as the Dragons responded to a 7-2 run from the Bonnies with a quick 5-0 burst of their own, putting the hosts behind by 10 points with just under 5.5 minutes left to play.
“We would have a breakdown, but credit to us that we didn’t let it get away,” Bona head coach Jim Crowley said. “We hung on. (The deficit) got to 10, but we wouldn’t let it get away. For most of the fourth quarter, we stopped letting them get layups. We stopped letting them get run-outs, because our offense got better. And then we stopped letting them get to the rim, and we did so without fouling. That was really solid defense.”
Time was of the essence and the window of opportunity was shutting. But, embodying the theme of their season, the Bonnies found a way.
Over the final 5:20 of action, they went on a 10-0 run, their largest scoring run of the game, and tied the affair up at 59-59, forcing overtime.
According to Laycee Drake, who led Bona with a game-high 24 points to go along with a full stat line of eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks, what fueled the team’s late charge was the knowledge that this could be the end.
“I knew that this would be our last chance, in the A10 tournament, we knew maybe we’d have a second chance, the loss obviously hurt, we wanted to go further than that, but playing tonight, it was obviously our last game if we lose. So we just played with that in mind.”
St. Bonaventure’s Laycee Drake (24) looks to drive against Drexel. Drake recorded a game-high 24 points for the Bonnies in their win over the Dragons. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
In OT, there was little separation. Critically, freshman Elyse MacDonough was responsible for keeping Bona in the contest with perhaps the two biggest 3-pointers of her life.
Prior to the game, Crowley acknowledged the growth he has seen from MacDonough over the course of this season, specifically on the defensive side — which she put on display by drawing a massive charge at the very end of regulation. The importance of her nine points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals was not lost on Crowley, Drake or Parker, who all raved about the impact she had on the night.
“She’s probably one of the hardest workers I know,” Parker said. “She’s in the gym every day. So, she’s steady, but just to hit those two big shots shows her work has paid off.”
But still, with 14 seconds to play the scores were level at 67-67. The hosts had possession and the chance to walk off the game in front of a boisterous crowd, and for his final play, Crowley went to one of his most trusted players in Aaliyah Parker.
At the intermission, Parker was scoreless. She was 0-for-7 from the field and had just four rebounds and an assist to her name. But her confidence never wavered.
“(The mindset was) just to keep going,” Parker said. “I mean, I was getting the shots that I wanted, they just weren’t falling. I just had to keep it up, get to my spots and hope they’ll fall, which they did, thank God.”
She may have missed all her attempts in the first half, but with the game on the line, Parker — who finished with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double — nailed the most important shot of the game with a trademark tough, driving layup to hand Bona the victory.
The Bonnies had not played for two full weeks ahead of facing the Dragons. The ‘rest vs. rust’ debate certainly had its place in the game. It would have been easy for a team that far removed from its most recent game of the season to fold in the latter minutes of a tightly contested high-stakes contest. But they never did, and for that, Crowley gave his players their flowers.
“The way I’ve chosen to run our program is you invest in each other and you kind of lay it out there,” Crowley said. “That’s really hard to do in the short term because you got to trust. And trust takes time. These guys did it right away. That’s not an easy thing, and I regularly compliment them on that and make sure that they know I appreciate it. … I tell the story that at our last practice before the A10 tournament, there was a couple of freshmen out shooting, and it was Laycee and Aaliyah rebounding for them. I got emotional down at the A10 tournament to be very honest, because it’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s been hard to get a group to do it.”
Drexel won all but one of the critical ‘points from’ categories at the bottom of the stat sheet. They won points off turnovers 11-5, fast break points 12-4, bench points 26-19 and doubled up Bona in the paint 40-20. The latter of those statistics elicited a chuckle out of Crowley when he saw it.
“I kept saying, for the last two days, ‘win the paint, win the game.’ So that tells you all the stuff I know,” Crowley joked. “They were getting some in transition, and we kind of knew they were sneaky good in transition. … They just read screens, they pass really, really well. I mean, they had 20 assists and some of that stuff’s fun for our kids to see. … We took that away late, we didn’t let them get any of that. So, now they got a late clock. Now they had to attack off the dribble, which is not as much of a strength, and we were able to be in better position for that.”
St. Bonaventure’s Elyse MacDonough (30) dishes a pass inside. MacDonough hit two important 3-pointers to keep the Bonnies in the game in overtime against Drexel. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
The well-documented, tight bond that exists within this year’s Bona team certainly played a role in seeing the result over the line. But the boost the home court advantage provided could not be overlooked and was emphasized by the team after the win.
“I told (the team) that today at shootaround that there are going to be people here,” Crowley said. “I told folks in recruiting, ‘It matters here. It matters to the community. It matters to the administration. People care about you here, and they will be here if you give them hard-playing good basketball.’ … Just seeing the Hall of Fame room full of people who just genuinely care, that’s why I love being here, it’s a genuine thing. These guys deserve to feel that.”
Drake echoed Crowley’s enjoyment and noted how much it meant to be able to give the community something to be proud of.
“It was funny, (Mackenzie Pettinelli) was talking in the locker room about how there was one point where she genuinely couldn’t hear anything,” Drake said. “It’s fun to play in an atmosphere like that. It was a fun environment.
“St. Bonaventure’s a basketball place, so it’s fun to be able to give them something to cheer for.”
St. Bonaventure now moves on to the second round of the WNIT where they will face Middle Tennessee State away from home on March 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
