BY JONNY WALKER, STAFF WRITER
The St. Bonaventure University women’s basketball team won a game by more than 30 points for the first time since 2012 Sunday at the Reilly Center, routing Division II Clarion 81-49.
The Bonnies (5-1, 0-0), outpaced the Golden Eagles (1-4, 0-0) in key areas like offensive rebounding (18-8), second chance points (19-4) and points in the paint (26-20).
At the end of the first quarter, however, Clarion led Bonaventure 16-13. The Bonnies, headlined by redshirt senior guard Tori Harris, then went on a 20-7 run to begin the second quarter and never looked back.
Harris posted an individual season-high 16 points, besting her scoring performance at Binghamton by one. The Dix Hills, New York native hit a trio of crucial threes midway through the second quarter as the Bonnies began to pull away. Harris, a career 27% three-point shooter, made 4 of 10 from 3-point range Sunday en route to being named Player of the Game.
Senior guard Asianae Johnson made her presence known on the boards with four of her six total rebounds coming on the offensive end. Johnson also finished with 11 points and 6 assists.
The Bonnies went into halftime with a 42-29 lead. By the end of the third quarter that lead had increased to 21 points.
Bonaventure head coach Jesse Fleming opted to rest his starters down the stretch as the starting five received just over 11 minutes of combined playing time in the fourth quarter.
Off the bench, Nicki Oppenheimer had 9 points on 3-5 shooting from three-point range, helping to finish off Clarion and widen Bonaventure’s lead to as much as 33.
Through five games, the Bonnies were one of only three Atlantic 10 teams to not allow an opponent to score 60 points this season. After the game, Bonaventure head coach Jesse Fleming acknowledged that streak.
“For us, as our identity kind of forms, it’s just defending, and defending will lead to offense,” said Fleming. “We have consistently defended so far—pleased by our first half defense—but, just overall, teams have struggled to get to 60 on us this year.”
Despite playing noteworthy defense, the Bonnies experienced another hot-and-cold shooting night on offense.
Bonaventure entered Sunday’s game with a season average of shooting 19.5% from three. The Bonnies made 35.3% of their threes against clarion but were far from consistent on a period-to-period basis. The third quarter saw the Bonnies make a single three on seven attempts, just one quarter after sinking five threes on nine attempts.
Fleming’s answer for the offensive inconsistency highlighted his team’s strength: owning the paint.
“Let’s make it a math problem today where even if we shoot 30%, when they shoot 50% later, they’re not going to be able to have success because we’re just going to have more opportunities,” said Fleming.
Bonaventure attempted 21 more shots than Clarion on the same number of possessions.
The Bonnies will look to continue their hot start Friday when Kent State visits the Reilly Center. That game will stream live on ESPN+ at 7 p.m.
walkerjc20@bonaventure.edu
