photo courtesy of gobonnies.sbu.edu

By Dustyn Green

RICHMOND, VA — One month ago, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball game beat Davidson on back-to-back nights.

The Wildcats came ready to get revenge on Wednesday, however, winning by a score of 69-61 in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Davidson was led by Cassidy Gould’s 25 points, 19 of which came in the first half.

“Gould is a really good player,” Bona head coach Jesse Fleming said. “Her teammates did a really good job of finding her today, especially in the first half.”

Davidson head coach Gayle Folks also had strong things to say about Gould’s performance. 

“She does not care about a single statistic, just the win or loss,” Folks said. “She is probably the most selfless player I have ever been around.” 

Gould’s teammate, sophomore Adelaide Fuller, followed up her effort with 17 points. Davidson senior guard Katie Turner, who scored 11 points, said that intensity was a key difference between this matchup and the teams’ first two contests.

“We went in with even additional intensity, and wanted revenge,” Turner said. “I hate losing, and I know the rest of these girls do too.” 

St. Bonaventure was led by 18 points from Asianae Johnson and 17 points by Tori Harris. Johnson went to work late in the first half after a slow start. 

“I was trying to give our team a kick start, since we were not ready,” she said. 

Fleming took much of the blame for the loss during his postgame press conference. 

“I need to do a better job preparing us for the zone,” Fleming said. “(Davidson) saw we did not hand the zone well. (They) changed a lot of things; maybe we should have rotated help on Gould.” 

SBU was out-rebounded 45-35 in the game. SBU ends its season with a 6-14 record in a season shortened by COVID-19.

“Practices were fun because of the competitive nature of the team,” Fleming said.  “I am really excited, and I really like our core.” 

Fleming said that he’s not yet prepared to look forward to next season. 

“I just want to sit back and appreciate these kids,” he said. “They are really hard workers, and they are really hurting today.”