By Skye Tulio
Sports Editor
The women’s basketball team (9-12, 2-4) fell to Charlotte (15-3, 4-1) Wednesday night at home, 64-57. The Bonnies will travel to Xavier (6-13, 0-5) on Super Bowl Sunday for a 2 p.m. game.
Last year, the women hosted Xavier and pulled off a 66-48 win in front of the largest home crowd of the year. Xavier is currently on a seven-game losing streak with their last win coming on Dec. 28 against Northern Illinois.
Wednesday, the Bonnies never gained the lead against the much bigger 49ers, but held their own in the game especially with three freshman starters.
“Today we played a very good, very experienced (five returning starters) and very big Charlotte team,” Head Coach Jim Crowley said. “I thought we did a lot of positive things, early in the second half we gave them some easy scores and we were a little tentative defensively, but we got it corrected.”
The Bonnies shot 31.7 percent (19-60) in the game against Charlotte’s 40.7 percent (24-59). Junior guard CeCe Dixon did not play again for internal reasons. The Bonnies used four freshman on the floor throughout the game in her absence, guards Emily Michael and Nyla Rueter, and forwards Katie Healy and Hannah Little.
Michael, Healy and Rueter all started for the Bonnies with the latter two combining for 29 points. Michael recorded three points with 37 minutes of play. Little played seven minutes and did not score.
Rueter led the Bonnies with a career-high 15 points while Healy and junior forward Doris Ortega each collected 14 points. Healy grabbed seven rebounds and Ortega had five assists.
The 49ers entered the Reilly on a three-game win streak, defeating Rhode Island, Xavier and Saint Louis.
“Their experience showed with their execution and their shot-making,” Crowley said. “Our inexperience showed a little bit with our misses and settling for some jumpers instead of attacking the rim. We battled and played really hard and as long as we’re playing hard I feel good about where we’re going.”
Crowley stressed the team’s understanding of the shots they need to take in order to consistently get rebounds.
“Height’s great, effort’s better,” Crowley said. “We’re always going to see teams taller than us but if we’re forcing the shots we should force we’re going to have chances for those long rebounds. We’re starting to understand the shots we should be taking and we’re missing a lot of them so that gives us a chance for more offensive rebounds.”
Charlotte senior forward Jennifer Hailey came into the game averaging 11.5 points and 14 rebounds. The three-year starter recorded 21 points against the Bonnies and 13 rebounds.
“That’s a veteran kid,” Crowley said. “Her timing of post ups is as good as anyone we play or are going to play. They do a good job of getting her the ball; that’s what First Team All-Conference seniors do.”
Healy said the team’s shooting percentage will improve with consistency and time.
“We might not make the shots we’re good at, but we constantly go hard,” Healy said. “Consistency with our shots is just going to come with time.”
Crowley said he is encouraged by the Bonnies aggressive play against a team of experienced starters, especially with so many of his freshman on the floor.
“I like that they’re getting better and I like that they’re getting good game experience,” he said. “One of the things it came down to is they have players taking shots they’ve taken for two, three, four years. We have players taking shots they’ve taken for two, three months.”
Crowley said his team understands the offense better and he’s pleased with the shots the women have been taking against A-10 competitors.
“In A-10 play, we’re not turning it over much and we’re taking shots that I really like, shots that we work on,” Crowley said. “They’re going to drop, it’s just getting that consistent pace of taking those shots and seeing a few drop—the confidence will come.”
