This year’s St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team features seven returners – three of them sophomores, three of them seniors and only one junior. The junior, Emily Calabrese, has played a lot of basketball during her first two seasons. In fact, none of the six other returners have played more.
Calabrese has played in all 60 games over the past two seasons, starting all 30 games her freshman year. Those 60 games, according to Calabrese, have prepared her for what’s to come as an upperclassmen.
“I’ve played a lot of minutes, especially my freshman year,” Calabrese said. “I think that has really helped me grow as a player and a leader. I know what to expect moving forward and how to help my teammates through certain situations on the court.”
Over two seasons, Calabrese has averaged 6.3 points per game, scoring 376 total points and picking up 53 assists. Calabrese has scored more than 10 points in a game 11 times in her career, including a 19-point, career-high performance in 2017 against Rhode Island. On the defensive side, Calabrese has collected 39 steals and 12 blocked shots, six in each season.
Despite putting up impressive numbers as an underclassmen, Calabrese isn’t satisfied. The six-foot forward wants to take her game to the next level on both ends of the floor.
“I worked on taking my defense to the next level,” Calabrese said. “I’ve been working really hard in the weight room, getting stronger and quicker. I want to hold my own more.”
She continued, “On offense, I’ve been working on finishing as accurately as I can around the rim. That’s been a big emphasis with my coaches. Just finishing.”
While Calabrese looks for improvement on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball, rebounding is a category Bona fans should expect Calabrese to continue her excellence in. After finishing 22nd in the Atlantic 10 Conference with 154 rebounds, Calabrese has established herself as a force around the boards.
In her freshman and sophomore years combined, Calabrese has had five double-digit rebound games, picking up a career-high 11 rebounds against Virginia Commonwealth University during her freshman year. On a career scale, Calabrese has tallied 321 total rebounds, averaging 5.3 per game.
The main focus for the Wykoff, New Jersey native, though, is winning. After living through two 8-22 seasons with plenty of close games in each of them, the goal for Calabrese and the Bonnies is to finish more games.
“We lost a lot of close games,” Calabrese said. “There are certain situations that we have looked back on and worked on in practice. We need to play better defense. Not 20 minutes. Not 30 minutes. A full 40 minutes.”
Her coach, Jesse Fleming, said similar. His team, after coming close in a handful of contests last season, must learn to finish.
“At times, we were really competitive. We had VCU beat at home. We had an open 3-point shot with a minute and a half to go against Fordham. It wasn’t that we weren’t in games against upper-level teams, but then there were let-downs.”
As her junior season will officially begin when the ball tips off on Nov. 5 vs. St. John’s at the Reilly Center, Calabrese will have plenty to work for. Her seven new teammates will learn some of the same things she learned through 60 games: mistakes happen, but fix them quickly.
“Mistakes are okay to make, but not too many,” Calabrese said. “One mistake can lose you the game. Fix them, keep your confidence and play your game.”
She said, “We need to stay as unit. We need to work together. The only way we will be successful is if everyone plays their part.”
By Mike Hogan, Managing Editor
hoganm17@bonaventure.edu
