By Zach Waltz
Sports Assignment Editor
The women’s basketball came back to beat the St. Louis Billikens 62-60 yesterday.
Head Coach Jim Crowley said the Billikens disrupted the Bonnies from the get-go, making it a difficult game.
“I give St. Louis a lot of credit,” Crowley said. “I thought they executed their game plan really well. They did a great job of putting pressure on our defense and knocking down a lot of important shots. We didn’t handle the way they defended very well. Defensively, we were late with a lot of things, and they took advantage of that.”
In the last few minutes of the game, the Reilly Center was buzzing with excitement as the Bonnies came from behind to win. Crowley said the roaring crowd gave the Bonnies the extra push to win the game.
“We’re lucky to be at home,” Crowley said. “We lose that game on the road. Hopefully, we understand where our preparation has to be, both physically and mentally.”
The last 11 points for the Bonnies were scored by forward Katie Healy, guard Nyla Rueter and guard Emily Michael. Healy scored the team’s final six points and finished with 12. Crowley said the three sophomores stepped up to hit the big shots for the Bonnies.
“They’ve been in a lot of big situations,” Crowley said. “They wanted those shots. There was no hesitation.”
Healy said her opportunities in the post were a result of the guards shooting well all game.
“I think a lot of that came with the guards hitting big shots,” Healy said. “I wasn’t finishing towards the rim so in the final minutes of the game a tried to.”
Crowley said the Bonnies were more aggressive in the second half, which was the key to winning the game.
“I didn’t think we defended great for 35 minutes,” Crowley said. “I thought we defended really well for the last five. We were down on free throws at the half, and we were down on rebounds at the half. We ended up winning both of those. I thought we just played more aggressive in the second half than we had in the first.”
Freshman forward Gabby Richmond also contributed quality minutes for St. Bonaventure, scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds. Rueter had a career-high 22 points for the Bonnies on 8-12 shooting. She said her motivation came from her poor performance in the last game against La Salle.
“Last game, I didn’t really play too well, so I was really excited and energized to come out and play this game,” Rueter said.
Crowley said the game shows that the entire conference schedule will be competitive, so the Bonnies have to learn from this game.
“There’s a certain energy that comes with people cheering for you,” Crowley said. “It was a better win than we realized for us. I think there’s a lot of things we can learn from how they defended us. Having multiple people make big shots is something that could be really good for us.”
