By Katie Faulkner @kfaulkner20
The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team faced its first tough opponent in the Siena Saints Friday night in the Reilly Center. Sophomore Miranda Drummond earned her first career start and had a game-high 15 points to help power her team to a 57-40 victory. The win sends the Bonnies into the second round of the preseason WNIT tournament on Sunday, when they will travel to DePaul, who defeated Southern Illinois 105-61 on Friday.
The Bonnies used defense to help propel their offense after a shaky start.
Senior Katie Healy recorded a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. The Saints didn’t make things easy underneath for Healy, but she connected on a few jumpers to get things going. Redshirt junior Gabby Richmond delivered positive stats for the Bonnies, tallying seven points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 21 minutes.
“(Richmond) was great in the second half,” said Bonnies head coach Jim Crowley.
The Bonnies took a 26-21 lead heading into halftime. Rueter drained an early three, which ignited a 7-0 run to push the lead to a comfortable 33-21.
The Bonnies recorded 15 assists on the night compared to Siena’s six. However, turnovers remain a prominent issue, with 18 coming in the first three quarters.
Overall, the Bonnies shot 40.4 percent (21-52) from the floor and connected on three field goals from behind the arc. Nyla Rueter had all three three-pointers on 3-of-12 shooting. SBU forced 17 Saints turnovers and held them to just 23.8 percent shooting on the night.
Crowley took note of the defense on Siena forward Margot Hetzke, who was unable to score on her four attempts.
“We held their returning leading scorer to no points- that’s a great team effort.”
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