Crowley & Co. make key roster additions in portal, look to build on recent success
By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — For the first time since his return to the head of the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball bench, Jim Crowley has not had to put together an entire new roster.
In the years after his tenure at Providence College, the roster for the Bona women’s basketball team had been a revolving door. For one reason or another players cut their time with the Bonnies short.
That all changed following the success of the 2025-26 season, in which they finished 17-16 overall — making one of the largest jumps in win totals between seasons in all of college basketball after having won just six games the year prior.
But it was not just the winning that kept players around, it was the culture.
“I think it says that our players wanted to play with one another, they like the school and obviously, we finished (last season) well, so that energy is there,” Crowley said. “Our first recruiting sequence (back at St. Bonaventure), we just had to kind of figure it out. The program wasn’t in great shape. From there, we really wanted to build. We’d go get good, young players and build. But, we hadn’t really zeroed in on how they’d fit in with us here. So then, from there … we really had to take into account what and who fit here and how they would fit together. That was a conscious effort and specifically my staff did a great job with that. … I do think they think they have some unfinished business as well, that there’s some more things they could do.”
All but four players from last year’s roster will make a return to the Reilly Center this season, which has allowed for Crowley’s offseason to be a little less chaotic. This time around, his summer has not been spent chasing players, but honing skill sets.
The sheer number of players that are coming back has also meant that he and his staff were able to take their time in finding the right players to supplement what the team already had. But still, at the heart of their search, remained the ‘Moneyball’ mindset Crowley — a devout Athletics fan — has made central in his operations. He doesn’t just want the best players, he wants ones that will thrive in the ecosystem of St. Bonaventure.
“It’s got to be at the forefront of what we do and it was before. When we went to the NCAA tournament, three of our starters were Upstate New York kids,” Crowley said. “I mean, Katie (Healy) was from Buffalo, Miranda (Drummond) was from the Binghamton area and Mariah (Ruff) was from Oneonta. So it’s always been part of our belief, and it will continue to be. I think there’s multiple reasons for that. They have familiarity here, with the environment, they walk around campus and they probably know somebody. Those things help, but also, there’s a connection that I can have with them that can help them feel more comfortable and can help me get more out of them.”
Lola Gralton, Kay Donahue, Jordyn Williams and Kyla Hayes were those additions made in the portal.
Gralton is a 6-0 guard hailing from Sydney, Australia and is a member of the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Spiders in the NBL1 East. Last season, she played for North Bears U18 in the New South Wales JPL where she averaged 14.0 points per game.
Donahue, a 5-10 guard from Belle Mead, New Jersey, will join Gralton in the backcourt after spending the last four seasons at Lafayette. In her time with the Leopards, she appeared in 80 games, making 18 starts.
Notably, what both Gralton and Donahue bring to the Bonnies is size and physicality. Last season, the average height of the top four scorers on the team was just over 5-8 — and the average height between Laycee Drake and Aaliyah Parker, far and away the top scorers on the team, was just over 5-7.
Now, that’s not to say Drake and Parker were unable to fight through contact, they did so with success just about every game. But both of them have graduated from the program, leaving a void that Crowley believes Gralton and Donhue will be able to fill.
“Kay’s versatility and experience were really key to what we were looking for, and I think her mentality fits us really well,” Crowley said. “Lola was, honestly, just a fortunate find. She shoots it really well while being a bigger physical guard. That stuff fits a lot with how we play.
“Size was a little bit (of what we were looking for), but really what we were looking for even more was physicality and they both bring it. I think the one thing people would notice if they just looked at us is, physically, we look different. Both Aaliyah and Laycee were very physical, but I think across the board, our returners have all gotten more physical. Then we brought in folks who fit that.”
Williams played her first two years of collegiate basketball at Niagara, appearing in 56 games and making 16 starts while registering 96 steals.
Hayes spent her freshman year of college hoops at St. John’s where she appeared in 10 games. But prior to her season with the Red Storm, she was a standout player for Cardinal O’Hara in Buffalo, finishing her career ranked third all-time on the Western New York scoring list with over 2,600 career points.
Williams and Hayes are each listed as forwards. They are also set to raise the average height of the team, standing at 5-11 and 6-0, respectively and Crowley anticipates them — along with 6-1 freshman Ella Trinkus — being pivotal in the battle on the glass.
“We did want to improve our rebounding on both ends, create more possessions for ourselves, as well as end more possessions and be able to start our offense a little earlier by getting better rebounds,” Crowley said. “But the other thing we really tried to get, and we probably aren’t able to get it as naturally as some other schools, is length. What I mean by that is, folks that are instantly labeled long or have length, get a lot of opportunities. So, we have to get folks who maybe have length you don’t recognize. Someone who may be an undersized forward, but their arms are longer than you think. … I think we did that pretty well.”
St. Bonaventure’s Kyla Hayes pulls up for a shot during practice. Hayes is one of four additions to the team head coach Jim Crowley and his staff made through the transfer portal. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
Of course, getting players that fit in the system is just part of the equation. They also have to fit amongst the ranks.
Following every season in the current era of college basketball, hundreds of players find their way to new programs. When a team is able to keep a core around, adding pieces that will complement the ones it already has is key.
“Both Jordyn and Kyla are very familiar with a number of our players. … They played for the same coach as Aaliyah, and Aaliyah knew them. So there was a lot of familiarity and comfort and we felt good that they would hit the ground running,” Crowley said. “With Kay, we brought her up and spoke to her for a minute and then the team was with her and they clicked right away. And (the players) are the guardians of what we want to do and what we’re building. So they know better than we would. … We think we landed really well with the players we got as far as, not just with their skill set, but also with their fit and personality and work ethic.”
And while Parker may not be able to put the ball in the basket for the Bonnies this upcoming season, like she did when she scored the game-winning bucket over Drexel to send the team into the second round of the 2026 WNIT, she will still have a significant role as she has been hired as the newest assistant coach on Crowley’s staff.
She will help bridge the gap between the new faces and the returners and, according to Crowley, the myriad of experiences she had over the course of her playing career make her a significant resource.
“She has really unique experiences as a player. I mean, she’s dealt with injury, she’s dealt with success, she’s dealt with difficulties. So I think that, first and foremost, the relatability of having gone through it (makes her an asset),” Crowley said. “We knew pretty quickly that she had a great IQ. … And just the way she consistently communicated and connected with her teammates, those are things that can make a really good coach. We know she’s got a good work ethic.”
Now, however, excited Crowley may be about his team’s newest acquisitions, he cannot just dump the combined 18.1 points per game that Drake and Parker accounted for last season onto them. There is going to be a need for everyone on the roster to take up the baton. The best way to do that: don’t try and be what you’re not.
“We play how we play, but I think there’s things that we can do to take advantage of what we do have,” Crowley said. “(Laycee and Aaliyah) both were very good one-on-one players. So I think we’ve got to take advantage of some things that we have that maybe are more ball movement or more discipline-based defensively. Certainly we have people back with a lot of game experience, and usually there’s a pretty good jump in the second year (with a team), so we feel OK that people can elevate their games, but I do think we’ll play a little bit differently.”
Primed to take one of the largest leaps of any returning player is Mackenzie Pettinelli. Despite having been just a sophomore, Pettinelli was one of the team’s veterans last season. Thrust into a leadership position, she stepped up and finished as the team’s third leading scorer, memorably nailing a game-winner against George Washington on New Year’s Eve in the RC.
She is now entering her third year with the Bonnies and while her role may change ever so slightly with the reshaped roster, Crowley has hopes that her growth as a player will continue to compound.
“She’s going to play probably a different positional role in some ways,” Crowley said. “The ball may be in her hands more. Even last year, she was one of, if not, our leading fourth-quarter scorer. So she wanted the ball in her hands in really big moments. She knows us, she knows the plays, she knows the program and she knows her fit in that. There’s a lot of confidence that can come from that.”
However, Pettinelli was not the only one who saw exponential growth over the course of the previous campaign. Elyse MacDonough, Mallory Heise and Ivona Djikanovic headlined a group first-year Bonnies that, come season’s end, were — or could have been, due to injury — looked towards as key contributors.
“Mallory was just hitting her stride when the injury happened. So, we’re excited to see how that goes. Elyse made terrific strides. Like, if you saw her earlier (in the year) and if you saw her now, that trajectory has continued. I’d put Vo in that category too,” Crowley said. “We had people who had some really good games and we need to have some more consistency from them. Kylie (Buckley), Kaylee Krysztof, Brillana Boyd, Olivia DiFranco, those guys did some really, really positive things for us and we’re excited to see how that continues to progress. We’ve seen Diamond (Fields) and Iva (Corluka) continue to get better as well.”
St. Bonaventure’s Brillana Boyd looks to drive during practice. Boyd is one of the 10 players set to make their return from last year’s team. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
The well of talent in last year’s team ran deep. In the early stages of the year, Crowley and his staff were in search of a third reliable scorer, someone who could add on to the numbers Drake and Parker were putting up. However, they eventually came to the realization that their strength lay in their numbers.
With a second year in the program, Crowley believes that well will get even deeper.
“Practice will tell,” Crowley laughed. “I think the two things that I can tell you is, we have depth and versatility. There’s a lot of different ways we can go, and I thought we saw some of that last year, where we could play a lot of different folks. I think we may have even added more this year to the depth and versatility.”
There is a palpable buzz around this iteration of the Bonnies. After picking up their first winning season in a decade and finishing with as many wins as they had in the past three seasons combined, a flock of familiar faces that led the team back to the postseason will be looking to build upon the solid foundation they have laid.
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