by Mikael DeSanto
Sports Editor
The St. Bonaventure University women’s basketball team captured its third straight win tonight, defeating the Davidson Wildcats 70-51.
“I was proud of the maturity tonight,” Bonnies head coach Jesse Fleming said. “I’m just really proud of the way we’re playing. We are getting a lot of deflections, we are covering up for each other defensively, even the stuff that they scored on in the first half was us over-covering for each other and, again, four people in double figures.”
The Bonnies (9-12, 4-5 A10) four double-figure scorers were graduate forward Gabby Richmond, junior forward Matea Britvar, junior guard Mariah Ruff and sophomore guard Mckenna Maycock.
The game began with the teams trading four point mini-runs, but the Bonnies were able to push their lead up to as much as seven with less than a minute to go. The first quarter finished with the Bonnies up 15-10.
Both teams scored quickly to start the second quarter, as the score had jumped to 23-16 after about two minutes. The Bonnies continued to pour on the offense throughout the rest of the quarter, scoring 13 points as the Wildcats (3-17, 1-7 A10) went scoreless in the final 6:23 on the first half. They went to the locker room with a 39-18 lead.
Ruff and Britvar led the Bonnies with 10 points at the half, while sophomore guard Justine Lyon scored 10 of the Widlcats 18 points in the half.
The Wildcats pushed for a comeback in the third quarter, outscoring the Bonnies 22-15, including a 10-2 run mid-way through the quarter. Both teams continued to dual throughout the remainder of the quarter and when the quarter ended, the lead had been cut from 21 to 14 points heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
“They got some second chance points, I thought they got to the rim a couple times, we didn’t close out to [senior guard Melanie Ransom] one time,” Fleming said. “But I thought the got to the paint a little but more in that half.”
The Wildcats would continue their push, but the Bonnies answered at every turn, keeping the deficit near 20 points for most of the second part of the quarter. They would outscore the Bonnies 6-2 in the final four minutes, but the comeback fell short.
The Bonnies out-rebounded the Wildcats 38-34 and won the scoring battle in the paint 32-24. They also added 29 points off of the 20 turnovers committed by the Wildcats.
“I think there is just, finally, more of a comfort level of what we’re asking from them,” Fleming said. “We’re the pack-line defense and you have to be in the right position all the time, and you have to learn to be in the right position before you can start taking some chances.”
Britvar led with 14 points, and Richmond, Ruff and Maycock added 13 points each. Maycock also added six rebounds and four steals for the Bonnies.
“I think when the three-pointer is going a little bit, then they have to close out a little harder, so I can take advantage of that to get to the rim,” Maycock said.
Lyon topped the Wildcats with 12 points and senior forward Rachel Piles grabbed 16 rebounds.
The Bonnies next game will be on Sunday when they head to Saint Joseph’s to take on the Hawks at 3 p.m.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
