Photo Courtesy of gobonnies.com
BY: WILL NUNN; SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
For the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball program, the 2011-2012 season was one for the record books, providing the program with the most success it had ever seen, success that has not been replicated since.
Coming off three consecutive women’s NIT appearances, the Bonnies, who had never reached the NCAA Tournament, were poised to make noise entering the 2011-12 season.
The team got off to a hot start, as the Bonnies traveled to Queens, N.Y. to take on the No. 25 St. John’s Red Storm for their first game against a Division I opponent on the season. Senior forward Megan Van Tatenhove scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Bonnies to a 64-58 win, their first-ever road win over a nationally ranked team.
Bonaventure picked up two more wins over power conference foes in its non-conference schedule. The Bonnies came back from a trip to Morgantown, W. Va., with a 56-48 win over the West Virginia Mountaineers, and took down the Indiana Hoosiers 65-45 in the Reilly Center as they entered A-10 play with a 13-2 record.
Conference play saw the same level of success for the experienced Bonnies, who were led by two seniors, Van Tatenhove and guard Jessica Jenkins.
Jenkins averaged 14 points per game and shot 39% from beyond the arc to earn Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team and was one of 30 players in the nation to be named a Nasmith Player of the Year Finalist in 2012. The Marion, Ohio native remains the A-10’s all-time leader in three-pointers made with 338.
After being named to the All-Conference Second Team as a junior, Van Tatenhove averaged 13 points and six rebounds per game and was selected to the All-Conference First Team in her senior campaign.
The Brown and White kicked off conference play with a 61-53 win at home over the Duquesne Dukes. Jenkins led the way with 16 points, and Van Tatenhove tallied a double-double, with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
After an 80-69 win over George Washington on Feb. 4, 2012, the Bonnies improved the 9-0 in the A-10 and 22-2 overall, finding themselves ranked at No. 25 in the country for the first time in school history.
On Feb. 18, the No. 22 ranked Bonnies welcomed the Xavier Musketeers to the Reilly Center for Senior Day on national television. Van Tatenhove led the Bonnies with a season-high 24 points in front of the largest home crowd of the season. The Bonnies won their 14th consecutive game to remain unbeaten in conference play, beating Xavier 66-48.
The Bonnies would complete the undefeated conference season with wins over Fordham and Rhode Island. They entered the A-10 Championship as the top seed, and ranked No. 19 in the country, with a 27-2 overall record.
A quarterfinal victory over La Salle and a semifinal win against St. Joseph’s set up a date with the preseason favorite Dayton Flyers in the Atlantic 10 Championship Final. Fueled by 18 points and 12 rebounds from Bonaventure sophomore forward Doris Ortega, the Bonnies climbed out of a 22-point deficit to take a late lead. Ultimately, the Bonnies would lose a heartbreaker 56-53, as Dayton claimed the A-10 crown.
The Bonnies earned an at-large bid and a five-seed in the NCAA Tournament, and would travel to Tallahassee, Fla., to face 12th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast University in the first round. Once again with their backs against the wall, Bonaventure would erase an 11-point deficit in the final minutes to send the game to overtime. Van Tatenhove led the way with 18 points and senior guard Armelia Horton added 17 points and nine rebounds as the Bonnies escaped with a 72-65 win in the opening round.
The Bonnies advanced to face 13th-seeded Marist University in the second round, where the game once again came down to the wire. Behind 22 points and six 3-pointers from Jenkins, the Bonnies took down Marist 66-63 and left Tallahassee one of the final 16 teams remaining in the country.
Standing in Bonaventure’s way in the Sweet 16 was top-seeded Notre Dame. Overmatched, the Bonnies struggled from the field and were blown out 79-35 to a Fighting Irish team that went on to fall to Baylor in the national title game.
Despite coming up a few games short of a title, the 2011-2012 St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team still stands as the most successful in program history. Their 31 wins remains a school record, and the Sweet 16 appearance is the furthest the Bonnies have advanced in the NCAA Tournament, men’s or women’s, since the men’s team went to the Final Four in 1970.
