by Mikael DeSanto
Sports Assignment Editor
Streaks were broken Wednesday night as the Canisius Golden Griffins (1-1) defeated the St. Bonaventure University women’s basketball team (1-2) 74-57.
The win was Canisius’ first at the Reilly Center since 1995, their first win over the Bonnies since 2005, and it marked the first time the Bonnies had lost at home since the Spring of 2015.
“We haven’t won down here since Jesus was a child,” Canisius head coach Terry Zeh said.
Coming off an 83-59 loss to Northeastern, Zeh said his team’s defense was much improved.
“We just defended better. We defended with more intensity and urgency, and we talked,” Zeh said. “We did something a little different. As a staff we went through all the defensive clips and wrote what we thought, we those clips to them as a team and we left. We said ‘ok go through all these clips and write down what you think,’ and when we got back together we matched the first 32 clips, and there was not one of them that we didn’t agree [with].”
The game opened with Canisius jumping out to a quick 7-2 lead in the first two and a half minutes of play, shooting 50 percent from behind the three-point line and capitalizing on the Bonnies turnovers to hold a 17-9 lead.
The Bonnies offense struggled to gain any traction throughout the first half, combining to go 8-29 from the field in the first half. They also turned the ball over eight times in the first half, allowing Canisius to score 10 points in transition. Canisius led 32-18 at the half.
“I thought the game was kind of over with after the first quarter,” Bonnies head coach Jesse Fleming said. “They came out tougher than us, with more energy than us, and that is really disheartening as a coach to see your team get out-competed like that.”
Junior guards Saliah Serrette and Margret Halfdanardottir shared the scoring lead for Canisius at the half with 6 points, while graduate forward Gabby Richmond and freshman guard Sarah Hart also each had six to lead the Bonnies.
The teams traded points throughout the third quarter, with the Bonnies unable to fully chip into Canisius’ lead, as it stood at 47-38 at the end of the third.
The Bonnies continued to try to mount a comeback, bringing the game to within six with 7:32 to go in the game. But the comeback would fall short, as Canisius went on to outscore the Bonnies 27-19 in the fourth quarter, and secure the victory.
“They all made shots. Shooting is like a disease, it spreads,” Fleming said. “We should have made some adjustments; we should have switched more than we did. We talked a lot about switching and we needed to just work on it more, because we were holding too long on screens and then they would pop, and get shots.”
Two plays in particular stood out to Fleming during the game.
“I was devastated by the two out of bounds plays where we didn’t even get lined up defensively,” Fleming said. “That will never happen again.”
The Bonnies were led by Richmond, who picked up her second double-double of the season with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Canisius was led in scoring by senior guard Lauren D’Hont, who finished with 15 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Fleming said he knows that something isn’t working for the team right now, and he intends to correct it.
“I have to figure something out, because we are not doing what we need to do,” Fleming said. “We are not defending like we should be defending, we are not moving the ball the way we should be, and it is on me. I have got to figure out a way to get this; I think I have to make some changes of some lineups and we have to get this thing figured out pretty quick.”
The Bonnies will next play at Delaware on Saturday at 8 p.m.
desantmj13@boanventure.edu
