BY ANDREW HALE, SPORTS EDITOR
The St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team defeated Division II D’Youville 62-48 in Saturday afternoon’s exhibition game.
In coach Jim Crowley’s first game back at Bonaventure, the Bonnies’ defense showed up in the first quarter, holding the Saints to six points and 2-13 from the field.
After leading the Saints 17-6 going into the second quarter, the Bonnies quickly squandered the lead. D’Youville outscored Bonaventure in the second quarter and tied the game 23-23, going into the half.
“I thought this was really good for us,” said Crowley. “Credit to D’Youville, I thought they played really hard, got after us and made us pay when we made some mistakes. Their tempo, offensively, really put some pressure on us. So, I think it was good for us to go against that, and I think it was really good for us to have to deal with the anxiousness of playing an actual game.”
In the first half, the Bonnies shot 10-28 from the field while the Saints shot 7-29.
Bonaventure displayed its ball movement, recording four assists in the third quarter.
After entering the fourth quarter up 44-37, the Bonnies kept their foot on the pedal on both ends of the floor.
“This group has been really good at recognizing how to correct things,” said Crowley. “I thought we saw that in the second half and got a little more back to who we are, but certainly some hiccups there. It’s early November so we can learn from those and keep getting better.”
The Bonaventure defense had five steals while the offense shot 44% from the field.
Junior forward Taylor Napper was a force in the paint as she finished with 18 points, shooting 8-10 from the field and five rebounds.
Redshirt junior guard Isabellah Middleton had 13 points and nine rebounds in her Bonnies debut.
“Being a guard, it’s easy to get a defensive rebound and just start to break, or give my team extra opportunities to get another bucket on the offensive end,” said Middleton.
Junior guard Anna Jankovic led the way for the Saints scoring 12 points and grabbing five rebounds.
The Bonnies begin the regular season at Niagara Wednesday at 6 p.m.
halea22@bonaventure.edu
