By Mikael DeSanto
Sports Editor
The St. Bonaventure University women’s basketball team faced struggles in recent games, including going cold offensively from beyond the three-point line.
In the last three games, which the Bonnies lost, no Bonnies player has made more than two three-point shots. In the case of the game against Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 29, the Bonnies hit zero three-pointers, including an 0-6 performance from junior guard Mariah Ruff.
However, Head Coach Jesse Fleming said he was not very concerned about the shooting issues, though he knows they need to improve going forward.
“We just don’t have a lot of shooting. We don’t have a lot of kids that make threes,” Fleming said. “We have to work with them in the off-season and get people so they are more consistent, but I wouldn’t call anyone on our team a shooter. Either through recruiting or working with them this summer, we have to get that better, but it’s 20 games into the year; either you can shoot it or you can’t.”
Ruff leads the Bonnies this season in both three-pointers attempted and three-pointers made. After the game against La Salle on Feb. 7, Ruff had made 44 of the 149 threes she had taken, giving her a 29.5 percent shooting percentage from three. The team leader in three-point percentage, so far, has been freshman guard Sarah Hart (17-55 for 30.9 percent), followed by sophomore guard Mckenna Maycock (8-26 for 30.8 percent).
“[Ruff] can be streaky and make some shots,” Fleming said. “Hart can too and Mckenna can throw one in, but I would not call any of those the strength of its game.”
Ruff said she felt the issue lied with the team’s lack of experience and decision-making skills at this point in their careers.
“I think that it’s attributed to that we have a young team and we still don’t fully understand what shot is a good shot resulting in not always being ready to shoot,” Ruff said.
She said the team can improve by focusing on more of its focus and confidence on court.
“The correction comes all from within,” Ruff said. “It’s all mental I believe we just need to be confident shooters and take the shot that we are ready for when given the opportunity.”
Fleming said the plan for improving the shooting of his current players will be fairly simple in execution, even though he has designs on how he wants his players to play overall. This will compliment any shooters the program brings in, according to Fleming.
“I think just getting them shots,” Fleming said. “They are just going to have to shoot ‘til their arm falls off, and I think they are just going to have to get better that way. But at the end of the day, we want [Ruff] to be an attacker, we don’t want [her] to have to settle for threes, and Hart is more of a playmaker, so it is going to be more of by committee. I don’t think any of the kids that we have on our roster we would want necessarily to be that shooter role. They do other things better.”
Despite the troubles they have had offensively from three, the Bonnies have stayed strong with defending the three-point shot. Though they were burned by Fordham (9-17 for 52.9 percent) on Feb. 4, the defense was able to hold Saint Joseph’s to 7-24 (29.2 percent) and La Salle to 3-10 (30 percent) from three.
Fleming felt good about how his defense performed through the season, saying he has confidence in the defensive game each day.
“I think we have been solid defensively. I think we are top four in the league in field goal percentage defense,” Fleming said. “We’ve guarded the three pretty well up until Fordham made those on us; we keep the ball out of the paint even though we’re smaller.”
Overall, Ruff said she sees the three-point shot as a very helpful part of the teams game, if it is able to make them consistently.
“It is important because it’s a game changer,” Ruff said. “It can cut a three possession game into a two really fast. I also think it’s important because then other teams cannot just make a walk around the paint. It opens it up for everyone else.”
The Bonnies will return to the court Saturday at home when the Saint Louis Billikens visit the Reilly Center. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
