By Mike DeSanto
Sports Editor
After nearly four months of long bus trips and hard-fought matchups, the St. Bonaventure University women’s basketball team’s season ended. The Bonnies finished conference play at 4-12, bringing their overall season record to 9-20, and ended the year with a 73-70 loss to the La Salle Explorers in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.
“It was a learning experience, starting out for me personally, and I think it would be for a lot of our team,” Head Coach Jesse Fleming said. “Learning how each player on our team ticks and, I think, them learning how the coaching staff ticks. There was a lot of feeling out this year. I would also say a roller coaster, as far as I thought there were some great moments where some beautiful basketball and played really hard, then there were some incredibly frustrating moments where we could have played better than we did.”
A benefit to such a learning season for the Bonnies is that, aside from senior guard Imani Outlaw and graduate forward Gabby Richmond, all the players are set to return for the Bonnies next season.
Fleming sees that as the main positive that the team and school can look forward to for next year.
“We basically are going to bring everybody back, so I think everybody got a lot of experience,” Fleming said. “I think that’s the biggest teacher you have, is experience. You can practice all you want, but until it’s real in a game, I think that’s huge. I thought we defended really hard until the last three weeks of the year, so I think we have great potential defensively as well.”
Fleming said he noticed some of the holes in the Bonnies game, including ball control issues, which he hopes to fix by the start of next season.
“I think we need a little more ball-handling. When I say this stuff it’s two ways. I think it’s the coaches need to bring in a couple more players that have these traits, but then on the flip-side our players need to get better with these traits,” Fleming said.
Fleming also said he sees a need for a stronger offense, which begins with getting help on the perimeter and in the paint.
“We have to get some shooting, and again that’s a combination of the three or four kids on our team this year that took threes, they have to get better, and I have to find a way to better get them ready to shoot those things. Then with Gabby leaving, we need some size, we need some rebounding.”
Assistant coach Andrea Mulcahy said she believes, with imrpovement in positive and negative areas of their game, the Bonnies can only get better from here on out.
“We did not have the season that we thought we could have had. I think everyone would agree that we under achieved with this season,” Mulcahy said. “So the only place to go now is up, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work from us coaches, from the players individually to get better.
Mulcahy shared a moment from this past season which she believes can help the team grow and become better in the long run.
“I know that sitting in the locker room after losing to La Salle, everyone was pretty upset and they didn’t want the season to end,” Mulcahy said. “So hopefully that can fuel us in the offseason to just keep getting better, keep working hard.”
Junior guard Mariah Ruff, who led the Bonnies in scoring with 13.9 points per game, shared her favorite moment from the season.
“My favorite memory of this season was when we went down to Florida for Thanksgiving and won two games and hung out with the team and [junior forward Matea Britvar’s] family,” Ruff said.
Freshman guard Jalisha Terry said she has high hopes and expectations for the team moving forward, knowing they can achieve them.
“By next year, I see this team being even better than this year, working even harder, being higher than number 11 in our league and [going] even further in the tournament,” Terry said. “But, we have to keep working and get everyone on the same page.”
Mulcahy gave Bonnies fans a final message for the season, addressing the support they showed for the team all season.
“First, I’d say thank you, because I know we had our ups and downs this year at times, like I think it was the Duquesne game, the crowd was great,” Mulcahy said. “That’s huge, we know that the Bona faithful are a great group of fans and we appreciate their support through the season, even though we weren’t consistent giving them the best show every game.”
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
