By Skye Tulio
Sports Editor
With its postseason hopes dashed, the women’s basketball team ended its 2012-13 season on high note, defeating La Salle, 71-58. The home win snapped a nine-game losing streak.
“Disappointed is probably too soft of a word for where we ended up,” Coach Jim Crowley said. “We knew there’d be challenges, and then we had the addition of some injuries and different things like that, and we never could really get in a good rhythm and going the way we’d like.”
The Bonnies (10-19, 3-11) finished 14th in the Atlantic 10 conference, missing the tournament for the first time since the 2005-06 season. This is also the first time in program history the team went winless in the month of February.
Crowley said the work in the offseason is just as important as the work on the court.
“At the end day, all of us in the program have got to do more in the offseason to get better,” Crowley said. “I think we all got a little satisfied with last year’s accomplishments instead of staying hungry. Hopefully this season and its lack of success brings our hunger back to the program.”
Crowley said some of the game performances didn’t always represent the effort the women put forth in their practices.
“Especially late in the year, when we were struggling to find wins and struggling to put the ball in the basket, I think some of that was just the pressure people were putting on themselves,” Crowley said. “Some people weren’t ready for that pressure and so they were put in unfair situations and lost confidence. It was kind of a bad spiral, so we just have to evaluate what we do well as individuals and as a team and make sure we’re getting into those proper places.”
Although he wasn’t always happy with the consistency of the team’s effort, Crowley said the group started to mesh toward the end of the season.
“I thought as the year wound down, they fully understood what it took every day,” Crowley said. “A lot of times the effort was okay, but it wasn’t surprising because the effort wasn’t great in practice. We didn’t have the consistent effort and competitiveness we needed in practice.”
Senior Alaina Walker, a 5’9″ guard from Pomona, N.Y., started 25 of 29 games in her final season as a Bonnie. Walker closed out her Bonaventure career with a total of 778 points and 600 rebounds.
Crowley said Walker has made her mark on the program in her four years representing the Brown and White.
“She’s just been really dependable,” Crowley said of his four-year player. “She’s been consistent with her approach and she has my favorite skill, which is effort. She is the perfect example of what we want people in our program to be: hardworking, personable, enjoys playing, good teammate and someone who was willing to improve.”
Walker said her senior status finally sunk in during the final moments of the La Salle game.
“After that final buzzer went off, it kind of set in that it was my last game,” Walker said. “Unfortunately, I can’t come back, but you have to move on.”
Fellow senior Jordan McGee transferred to Bonaventure during the 2011-12 season after spending her first two years at New Mexico Junior College. She finished her career with 76 points and 129 rebounds. She started 13 games during her final season.
“It’s tough when you come in and you’ve gone from high school to junior college and then you change again, but she (McGee) handled it well,” Crowley said. “She certainly did some really good things for us over the last two years and at times helped us find success.”
Made up of mostly freshmen (six), the Bonnies struggled to find their rhythm throughout the season.
“I think consistency is the hardest thing for a young player as well as the understanding of what experience can bring,” Crowley said. “A lot of times they were put in situations they were stuck in, and instead of being able to learn their way in they were kind of thrown in the fire. The question for them will be: ‘Did they learn from the bad and increase the good?’ They are all capable of it and if they do, our program will be back to winning more than we lose.”
