BY NATHAN SOLOMON, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR.
For the second time in as many days, the St. Bonaventure Women’s Basketball team (4-10, 3-8 A10) scored a victory over the visiting Davidson Wildcats (6-9, 3-6 A10), winning 71-63 on Monday. However, unlike Sunday, the Bonnies were forced to overcome a double-digit first quarter deficit to score their third A10 victory of the season.
“We came out a little flat and Davidson had some great energy and made some tough shots,” Head Coach Jesse Fleming said postgame. “I was proud to see us battle back.”
The Bonnies scored just seven points in the first quarter and trailed by as many ten in the second quarter. A pair of buckets from Emily Calabrese and free-throws from Asianae Johnson to end the second quarter put the Bonnies within four of the Wildcats with 20 minutes to play. They would stay hot to start the third quarter, connecting on six of their first seven shots and taking a 34-33 lead.
“We got some stops, got out in transition, and got ourselves some easier baskets,” Fleming said. “They went 1-3-1 a couple of times, and I thought we attacked it. Just the flow was there more.”
Led by 17 second-half points from Asianae Johnson, the reigning A10 player of the week, the Bonnies pushed their lead to 11 early in the fourth quarter.
“Today, we really kept our composure,” Johnson said. “We just stuck together as a team.”
Although Johnson and her teammates stayed hot on offense, Davidson slowly crept back into the game, cutting St. Bonaventure’s lead to just three points. However, 3-pointers from Tori Harris and Jurnee President helped the Bonnies fend off the pesky Wildcats late.
“They were in some foul trouble, so we were able to attack some mismatches,” Fleming said. “We made some threes. It was kind of the same looks [as earlier], and we knocked them down”.
Johnson finished with 20 points for the Bonnies while hitting 12-of-15 free-throws. I’yanna Lops, Tori Harris, Jurnee President, and Deja Francis all finished in double figures for the victors.
One of the major factors in the Bonnies second consecutive win over the Wildcats was rebounding. After being outrebounded by 12 in a 13-point victory on Sunday, St. Bonaventure outrebounded Davidson by five in Monday’s victory.
“We just held them to one-shot a lot,” Fleming said. “You can get outrebounded if you make eight 3s, but if you only make three 3s, then you better be winning that rebounding battle, and we did”.
Leading Davidson once again was Chloe Welch, who followed up her 18-point outing on Sunday with 25 points on Monday. Also contributing for the Wildcats was Suzi-Rose Deegan and Katie Turner, each chipping in 10.
After losing 10 of their first 12 games, the Bonnies seem to be back on track. Two consecutive victories put the team back in the A10 mix.
“It’s amazing going back-to-back,” Johnson said. “Our team just playing 80 minutes in two days as one is huge”.
However, the Bonnies won’t have long to celebrate the two victories. St. Bonaventure hits the road to face George Mason and George Washington this weekend.
“[We] just [need to] be completely focused like we were this week,” Fleming said. “Win or lose, just go back to work”.
