Courtesy SBU Athletics
By Aaron M Smith
PHILADELPHIA, PA -Charles Dickens, move over! You have met your match.
The St. Bonaventure Bonnies penned their own version of “The Tale of Two Halves”, as SBU broke open a close game using a 18-2 run to start the second half and defeat the upset-minded LaSalle Explorers, 68-53 in Atlantic 10 Conference quarterfinal action.
Paced by Megan Van Tatenhove’s 13 points, Bona had 5 players score in double figures. Jessica Jenkins and Armelia Horton contributed 11 points each.
Brittany Wilson led the Explorers with a game high 19 points, and Nadia Duncan contributed 10 in a losing cause.
The Brown and White got the scoring started at the 19:07 mark of the first stanza when Van Tatenhove grabbed the offensive rebound off a Doris Ortega miss, kicked it out to a wide open Jenkins for a 3-0 lead.
Ortega scored the next two field goals as Bona quickly raced to a 16-2 lead.
Early foul trouble would play the part of equalizer as Alaina Walker picked up her second foul at the 16:36 mark on an offensive charge. The junior guard was forced to sit and watch her teammates for the rest of the first half.
With SBU’s defensive star on the bench, Explorer’s Brittany Wilson quickly went to work. The redshirt junior hit a pair of threes to bring LaSalle within 6, 18-12.
Chelsea Bowker would answer right back as Cece Dixon found the junior guard in the corner for the trifecta, and a 21-12 lead.
Wilson returned the favor, scoring 9 of the Explorer’s next 11 points, and when Michea Bryant found Nadia Duncan underneath the basket for a wide open layup, the lead was down to just 2, 27-25. Overall, Wilson scored 17 of the Explorers’ 25 first half points.
“I thought LaSalle did a great job in the first half of mixing defenses and really getting us to be a little passive in what we wanted to do offensively,” Coach Jim Crowley commented.
The second half would be a different story.
With the Explorers continuing to sit back in their 3-2 zone, Van Tatenhove went to work. The senior forward pump faked, drove baseline, finished the drive and was fouled for the three point play.
The Sheybogan Falls native then stole the ball from Wilson, passed to a streaking Jenkins, who spun to avoid the defender and finished with the right hand.
After a Wilson miss, Jenkins grabbed the rebound, put the ball behind her back, and the hit the pull up trifecta for a 35-25 lead.
Thanks to a stifling SBU defense, the Explorers would not register their first field goal of the half until the 11:29 mark. The drought allowed Bona to start the second half with a 18-2 run and race to a 45-29 lead.
“I thought the first eight, nine of the second half was as well as we have played defensively,” Crowley confirmed.
The Bonnies put the clamps on LaSalle’s Wilson, as Jordan McGee and Cece Dixon would made life miserable for the junior throughout the second stanza. The Explorers’ guard would not score another field goal until the 5:32 mark of the second stanza.
“They (Bonnies) guard the ball well. They don’t necessarily deny, but they are there on the catch,” Coach Jeff Williams commented. “They make you score over the top their defense. They don’t give you any looks to the basket. They close out well; they don’t give you open shots so you really have to work. What we tried to do was spread them, just try to dribble drive, because they were switching out a lot on our sets and making it difficult for us to get into our offense.”
LaSalle shot just 17% in the second half, and finished shooting just 24.6% for the game.
“This game comes down to scoring and we just didn’t have enough people scoring the ball, ” Williams explained.
With the win, Bonaventure advances to face St. Joseph’s in semi-final action of the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship. Tip off is scheduled for 12:00 pm.
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