BY NATHAN SOLOMON, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR.
Despite beating the Wildcats twice in the regular season, the St. Bonaventure Women’s Basketball team (6-15, 5-12 A10) lost to Davidson (9-13, 5-10 A10) by a score of 69-61 in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, ending their season.
“It just sucks,” junior Asianae Johnson said. “We came into this with the mindset of ‘we’re already going to win’, and that’s not even the case. We hadn’t even played the game yet…. We just got to have more heart”.
The Bonnies started out strong, taking a 15-13 lead after the first quarter of play. However, 31% shooting in the second quarter allowed the Wildcats to take a 32-26 lead into the break behind 19 points from Cassidy Gould.
“The ball found [her],” coach Jesse Fleming said. “We needed to just do a better job so we weren’t in those rotational [issues]. Early on, a couple things in transition got her going too. I always thought she’d be a great player, and man, did she show it today”.
St. Bonaventure put more pressure on Gould in the second half and held her without any made field goals. However, increased pressure on her gave players like Adelaide Fuller and Katie Turner looks, and they cashed in on them.
“Fuller kind of had a stretch there over five or six minutes where she just scored 1-on-1,” Fleming said. “We were really trying to sit on her right shoulder, and she got back to her left shoulder and couple times…. But, establishing [Fuller] kind of allowed Turner to get a couple clean looks because we had to dedicate more resources to the post”.
The Bonnies trailed by as many as 13 points in the third quarter, but the team crawled back within three points after a Tori Harris 3-pointer with 30 seconds left. Davidson pulled back ahead by 10 in the fourth quarter, but an 8-2 Bonnies run led by freshman Maddie Dziezgowski pulled St. Bonaventure within three.
However, with just 2:47 remaining, Turner drilled a head of the circle 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a six-point advantage that they’d never surrender.
“Gould got the offensive rebound and kicked it out to Turner and made it from a three to a six-point game,” Fleming said of Turner’s late game shot. “[The 3-pointer] was probably the play of the game”.
After the shot, which would turn out to be the game-winner, Gould hit six of her eight free-throws down the stretch to secure the victory for Davidson.
In the loss, the Bonnies shot the ball 39% from the field and 29% from deep. They were outrebounded by 10, 45-35.
The Bonnies finish the season 6-15; their fifth straight losing season under the helm of Fleming. As coach of the Bonnies, Fleming’s squad has yet to finish with more than 10 wins. His contract expires this off-season, and his future status is unknown.
