by Mikael DeSanto
Sports Assignment Editor
The St. Bonaventure University women’s basketball team fell to the Bucknell Bison 57-35 Tuesday night, taking its second home loss of the season and scoring a season low in points.
“I was relatively pleased. I thought we did a good job with our game plan; I give Bucknell a lot of credit,” head coach Jesse Fleming said. “(Kyi) English is a 22 percent three point shooter, she made some big threes, Gia Hayes came in and threw in a big three, [and] McGurk, she went one for five, but she threw in a big three in that stretch. At the end of the day, we needed to do a little bit better job getting out there, but their posts are pretty good players and that was kind of the game plan.”
Bucknell scored 10 points off the Bonnies 15 turnovers, as well as 15 points on second chance opportunities. Fleming said that the team expected to lose the rebounding battle, but mistakes caused the rebounds to cost them more than expected.
“It’s all we talked about, and there was a couple that they went and got,” Fleming said. “Iwas disappointed for a stretch in the first half, I didn’t think our guards were checking out, I think they were trying to leak out in transition a little bit, and it was something we had said that ‘we’re not getting transition of them, you have got to secure the rebound.’ I thought there were a couple defensive breakdowns that forced us to rotate and then that freed up somebody to rebound because we were helping the helper.”
The Bonnies finished the game with zero points off the bench, while Bucknell had 14 from its bench players. This is something that, to Fleming, needs to be fixed quickly.
“With zero bench points, we have to find a way to build some confidence and get those kids going a little bit,” Fleming said. “I thought their zone did a good job of making us passive a little bit; I thought we had some good stretches at times, but we are not putting together a 40 minute game.”
The game started off slow, with both teams combining for 20 points in the first quarter and 19 in the second quarter, sending the game to halftime with Bucknell up 23-16.
Bucknell shot 28.6 percent from the field in the first half, while the Bonnies shot 22.7 percent from the field. The Bonnies three point shooting was at 25 percent at the half, while Bucknell’s was 15.4 percent.
“I thought we defended pretty darn well again. We could have [done] a little bit better job, ac couple people let some layups in, there was some stuff early on,” Fleming said. “It wasn’t like we scored it against Stony Brook and now we’re going against an NCAA tournament level defense. They’re going to be there on their rotations, and I thought we missed some open looks early. I thought we had some really nice looks and building the confidence of those kids.”
While Bucknell’s offense improved in the second half, the Bonnies struggled to find their way throughout the rest of the game.
After the Bonnies pulled it to within two, Bucknell went on a 14-4 run to end the third quarter, including four three point shots.
Bucknell continued to pour on the pressure, scoring seven points before the Bonnies next score at the 6:32 mark of the fourth quarter. The Bonnies only scored four points for the rest of the game as Bucknell closed out the victory.
The Bonnies struggled to put plays together on the offensive side of the ball, due in part to a lack of movement by off-ball players at times.
“When they were in zone I thought we got stagnant with our three-cutter offense” Fleming said. “We should be cutting a little bit more there, moving and getting the ball swung. So I thought that’s where we were a little stagnant, I think what happens is you play a team like Bucknell that denies reversals, so you try to get the ball swinging and it’s denied.”
Senior forward Claire DeBoer led the Bucknell offense with 17 points and seven rebounds in 36 minutes played.
Junior guard Mariah Ruff led the Bonnies in points with 12, as well as four rebounds and four assists. Junior forward Matea Britvar also contributed with 10 points and six rebounds.
The Bonnies next game will be on Dec. 9 when the team travels to take on Eastern Michigan at 11 a.m.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
