BY WILL POLADIAN, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team played host to the Siena Saints on Thursday, winning 50-42 in the Reilly Center.
Early on the Bonnies jumped out in front as Siena couldn’t find a rhythm. The Bonnies attacked the paint by way of forward Ene Adams. After the first timeout, the Bonnies would go cold as they let the Saints back into the game. After one the Saints were up 14-11.
The start of the second quarter was slow for the Bonnies. They were able to pick it back up midway through the quarter though as they would end up shooting 47.9% from the field. At the break, the Bonnies would be down by one as the Saints would lead 22-21. The Bonnies would outrebound the Saints 31-19. The Bonnies had 10 turnovers as it was a sloppy half for them. Shooting wise both teams had a poor shooting percentage with the Bonnies shooting 26.5% and the Saints shooting 19.4%. Siena outscored the Bonnies 12-2 off the bench. The Bonnies would score two-thirds of their points in the paint. 10 of Siena’s 22 points would come off turnovers.
The second half started with the same theme as the first as the Bonnies had multiple turnovers to start. Guard Tianna Johnson came out of a timeout with a quick bucket to change the momentum. The Bonnies would end up improving on their shooting with a 33.3% shooting percentage and shooting 62.5% in the quarter as they would bring the game back to a tie at the end of three quarters with the score of 34-34.
The fourth was a huge quarter for the Bonnies as they picked up their shooting. With six minutes to go Ene Adams would end up in serious foul trouble that ultimately didn’t become a factor in the Bonnies win over Siena 50-42.
The Bonnies had 22 turnovers and 44 rebounds while the Saints had 17 turnovers and 39 rebounds. The Saints shot 21.9% from the field, 73.3% from the line, and 11.5% behind the arc. The Bonnies on the other hand shot 36% from the field, 70% from the line, and 0-13 from three. Siena scored 21 points off the bench and 18 points off turnovers while the Bonnies scored 3 off the bench and 8 off turnovers. The Bonnies would score 28 in the paint compared to Siena’s 14. The Bonnies leading scorer of the night was guard Asianae Johnson with 19 points. She also had two assists, two steals and five rebounds. The Bonnies will look to continue their win streak against Cleveland State on Saturday.
Tianna Johnson changed her approach at the half to come away with the win.
“When we went into the locker room we all talked about what we could do better and we thought that we could just get to the rim more and we knew we needed to pick it up, our energy was kinda low,” said Tianna Johnson.
Asianae Johnson talked about the energy and what needed to be changed.
“It was really just an energy game I feel like as soon as we got to the third quarter,” said Asianae Johnson. “As soon as we got out of the locker room it was like we needed to pick up our energy. They only had one main player that was getting to the rim and going through their offense, so we really had to stop her and lockdown on defense.”
Head Coach Jesse Fleming provided his thoughts on the game as well.
“We said one of our keys to the game was to lean in our identity of defending and rebounding,” said Coach Fleming. “It is something where you can have days that are poorly executed. We turned it over, we didn’t make a three today, but you can always defend and rebound and we’re doing that. We’re trying our best to keep the ball out of the paint and contesting around the perimeter, holding teams to one shot and there was times that we did other times that we didn’t. Brown got into the paint on us a little bit at times, we had a couple wrong helps, but I thought Asianae took a couple huge charges.
“It was enough tonight and I want the girls to feel good about this win.”
poladiwj20@bonaventure.edu
