BY TOM SEIPP, MANAGING EDITOR.
NOV. 6, 2020
After a difficult season in 2019-20, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team is looking to start off on the right foot in the 2020-21 season.
The Bonnies struggled a year ago, finishing with a 7-23 record, losing six games in a row to end the season, and going 0-13 at visiting universities.
Jesse Fleming enters his fifth season at Bonaventure and it’s a big one for him.
In Fleming’s Bonaventure coaching career, the Bonnies have never eclipsed double-digit wins.
For the team to do so this year, they will rely on junior guards Asianae Johnson and Deja Francis to lead the way.
Johnson, an international studies major, had an improvement during her second year, leading the team with 12.7 points-per-game on 45% shooting.
Francis, a journalism major, was right behind Johnson in the scoring category, as she averaged 9.5 points-per-game on 40.5% shooting, a 4.5% increase from her first year.
Johnson and Francis took up 30% of the minutes played for the Bonnies this past year.
One key piece joining the Bonnies this year is Tori Harris, a transfer from James Madison University.
Harris shot 33% from the three point arch in her final year at JMU, and it’s vital she keeps the same consistency, as the Bonnies have struggled mightily from the three-point arch.
In the 2019-20 season, the Bonnies shot just 29.8% from three point range.
Their best three-point shooter (minimum 25 shots) was Olivia Brown, a sophomore journalism major, who shot 35% in her first year with the Bonnies.
After Brown, the only two shooters who remain at Bonaventure are Jurnee President, a junior criminology major, and Francis. Both struggled, shooting under 30% from beyond the arch.
In the post, the Bonnies return senior Emily Calabrese and redshirt-sophomore Carrie Jornlin.
Calabrese returns after her best season in 2019-20, as she averaged 7.6 points-per-game. She improved her shooting drastically, as she shot 49.5% from the floor, a 5% increase, and 86% from the free throw line, an overall 17.5% increase from her freshman year.
Jornlin has dealt with a lot of adversity throughout her time at St. Bonaventure. After playing in 12 games her freshman year (2018-19), she’s been sidelined ever since with injuries, taking last year off as a redshirt. The 6-foot-3 forward is looking to return to action and provide much-needed depth for the Bonnies this upcoming season.
After losing five players to the transfer portal and graduation, the Bonnies brought in a young new group.
The team brought in three players who are eligible to play this year, including Harris, I’yanna Lops and Star Fitzgerald-Greer.
Fitzgerald-Greer, a graduate student from Howard, averaged 3.6 points-per-game in 30 games as a junior a year ago.
Lops, a sophomore transfer from Cal State Bakersfield, played in just six games before transferring. She averaged 2.8 points and 1.7 rebounds in 8.7 minutes per game.
The Bonnies brought in three freshmen: Morgan Gentile, Maddie Dziezgowski and Mia Kulenovic.
Gentile, an undeclared business major from Elmira, New York, averaged 15 points per game for Elmira High School.
Dziezgowski, a biochemistry major from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, averaged 14.2 points per game as a junior.
Kulenovic, an individualized business, is a freshman from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
If the Bonnies are looking to improve in this upcoming season, they’re going to need to shoot the ball at a much-improved rate. After just shooting 39.2% from the floor and 29.8% from three, if the team can improve their efficiency of scoring the ball, the Bonnies could finish in the middle of the A-10.
With still so much uncertainty in the schedule, there is one thing that’s certain for the Bonnies schedule: conference pairings.
The Bonnies will host Dayton, Fordham, Rhode Island, St. Louis and VCU exclusively and play at Davidson, George Mason, George Washington, the University of Massachusetts and Richmond. The team will also face Duquesne, La Salle and St. Joseph’s both at home and on the road.
The Bonnies have benefitted from being on campus with little-to-no issue COVID-19 related since July. The team is hopeful their early start can help them fuel to getting out to a fast start once the season gets underway.
