In their final home game of the year, the Bonnies continued the inconsistent play that has plagued them all year, falling to LaSalle 66-53 Wednesday night.
Once again, the Bonnies struggled to put together 40 minutes of team basketball, and the result was more disappointment.
For Coach Jim Crowley, the team’s loss, as well as its lack of effort, was frustrating.
“I’m very disappointed that a team came in here in a late season game and wanted the game more than us,” Crowley said. “I’m very disappointed that we didn’t fix things. It’s what we’ve seen before, and today was kind of the sum-up of what we’ve seen [all year].”
The Bonnies settled for difficult shots, attempting 20 three-point shots and only connecting on four of them. The ball did not move for the Bonnies on offense, and they finished with only seven assists.
Prior to the game, the team had planned to work for points in the paint and force LaSalle to take difficult shots. Instead, LaSalle scored 28 points in the paint.
The lack of execution from the Bonnies was not lost on Crowley.
“Our whole game plan was to get in the paint, and we just chuck threes,” Crowley said. “Our whole game plan was to keep them out of the paint, and we just let them get layups. Credit to LaSalle for having more fire and desire than us.”
The team was disappointed with the loss as well.
“We just didn’t come out ready,” junior guard Emily Michael said. “Instead of fixing things like coach said, we just let it carry on and no one stepped up to say ‘this is the end of it; we’re going to turn it around.”
Poor defense also played a role in the loss. At times, the Bonaventure defense was slow to react, and this led to easy points for the Explorers.
“We did a poor job of team defending, especially late,” junior forward Katie Healy said, “and I think that really hurt us.”
Crowley also was displeased with the defense, especially the lack of help from other defenders when LaSalle drove to the hoop.
“We’ve had the wrong approach,” Crowley said. “We don’t react well to things.”
The Bonnies have one game remaining before the Atlantic 10 tournament, and they will have to begin to play as hard as they can consistently or face an early exit from the tournament.
“We’re not playing hard enough,” Crowley said. We’ve got to pick up our level. I think at times some people tried to fix it, but certainly there was never a group of five that fixed it as one, and that’s been an issue all year.”
For Michael, the problem stems from a lack of accountability.
“We need to stick together,” Michael said. “We have pick each other up, but we also have to hold each other accountable.”
Perhaps Healy knows best what needs to change, and said, “We need to listen.”
