photo courtesy of gobonnies.sbu.edu
By Sean Casey
QUEENS, NY — The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball was four points away from winning its first road game since Jan. 30, 2019, in the team’s last non-conference game of the year.
In a true game of back-and-forth runs, St. John’s bested the Bonnies by a final score of 60-57.
The Bonnies had three players reach double-digit scoring, as Asianae Johnson scored a game-high 14 points, Deja Francis scored 11 points and Tori Harris finished with 10 points.
It was a close game throughout that had many lead changes, brought out many emotions, and was hardly fought by both teams. Although the Bonnies did not get the result they wanted, there were some takeaways from the game.
Slow Start
The Bonnies played a solid 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter, but the first quarter was subpar. It did not seem like they came out with the energy that was needed when on the road against a bigger school such as St. John’s.
They scored only ten points in the quarter, shooting 33% from the field. They also had five turnovers, the majority of which were unforced caused by either a travel or bad pass. St. Johns also had a poor first quarter, only scoring 13 points, so if the Bonnies were able to come out with energy, the result of the game may have looked different.
Pace of the Game
Overall, the pace of the game was a slow one.
The Bonnies rarely pushed the ball in transition and appeared take their time and play in their half-court offense. This is not necessarily a negative thing because they did get good looks and open shots through their offense.
They did not convert on many looks that were designed for shooters, shooting 4-14 from three, but when they did hit, every made three-pointer felt back breaking for the opposition, and it boosted the energy of the Bonnies significantly.
When they did push the ball, the usually got an easy basket. The pace the team plays at is good, but going forward in the season, they should look to push more off defensive rebounds and turnovers.
Held Their Own Against Bigger School
St. John’s is a much larger school than St. Bonaventure and is supposed to handle match ups like these.
St. John’s is a Big East school in New York City, which means that by default, have an edge in recruiting over a smaller school in a lower conference which the Bonnies play in.
Despite the differences, the Bonnies proved that they belonged to be on the court with the Red Storm. It was a game of runs, and the Bonnies stayed competitive the whole game with their largest lead (12 points) coming in the 3rd quarter. They adapted to the different defenses that were thrown their way that included man-to-man, zone and press, out rebounded St. John’s, and fought until the last second to try and win the game.
The away game losing streak continues, but St. Bonaventure hopes to make that come to an end with Atlantic 10play upon them. Their next game is New Year’s Day, as they look to even their 0-1 A-10 record vs the Dayton Flyers.
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