Bonnies Soar Past Hawks to Earn 18th Win

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By: Michaela Nolan

Today we are starting to do something a little different here on the blog, which is covering the Bonnies Women’s team. Our staff will be keeping you updated on their home games as often as possible for the rest of their season, and hopefully even more in the years to follow. We are happy to add the women’s program to our coverage as they deserve more ink then they receive. Let’s get to the happy recap.

The Final Result: After coming off of their first Atlantic 10 loss of the season, the Bonnies dominated against Saint Joe’s Hawks. They defeated the Hawks with a total score of 65-51 to earn their 18th win of the season against just three losses. The win was also the Bonnies 12th at home, keeping their record perfect in the RC. For a full recap from the folks inside the Athletic Department, click this link here.

Bonnies Player of the Game: #21 Nyla Rueter. She is a senior guard from Hagerstown, Indiana. Rueter, a 1,000 point scorer, is just the 21st Bonnie to accomplish this feat in program history. Nyla finished with 16 points, shot 6-8 from the field, and 2-3 from the 3 point range in 35 minutes of play. She scored eight of her 16 points in the Bonnies big 21 point second quarter, helping to push the lead and distance themselves from the Hawks. She also had three steals and three assists against just one turnover.

The Good Stats for the Bonnies: The Bonnies 18 wins are now the second best mark in the country. The women continue to be perfect at the Riley center with their 12th win at home this season. The Bonnies were able spread the points around as eleven of their twelve players had at least one point; this lead to the Bonnies twenty-one points off the bench. This balance scoring has been a staple of this club and it continued tonight vs. the Hawks. The team was able to record an assist on 15 of their 25 made field goals, a solid percentage. Tonight they were able to create points off of turnovers as well leading to easy buckets and high percentage shots. They changed 20 turnovers into 12 fast break points and 21 total points off turnovers. The Bonnies also dominated inside the paint and driving to the basket as they were able to accumulate thirty-two points in the paint; again the easy buckets were key tonight for the ladies. Forcing 20 turnover isn’t easy, and that defensive effort, along with holding the Hawks to just 35% shooting, gave them a huge leg up before even doing anything offensively. Finally, the Bonnies were tagged with just 11 fouls in the game which is a nice low figure, helping keep the Hawks off the foul line where they went 9-12.

The Bad Stats: With everything that went well tonight in the win over Saint Joseph’s there is room for improvement; as always. The main focus point from tonight is likely ball protection, as the Bonnies had 17 turnovers, which luckily St. Joseph’s was only able to turn into nine points. Against a better team in the league, like a Dayton, these 17 giveaways could have spelled a loss. Another area for improvement (and something to look at in the film room) before their next contest on Sunday is rebounding on both sides of the court. SBU lost the offensive rebounding battle 11-4 and split the defensive rebounding game 23-23. Obviously when you shoot the ball like the Bonnies did tonight (49%) and hold your foe to just 35% shooting the chances for offensive boards are going to be less. Still, coach Crowley would certainly like to hold his opponents to under 10 offensive boards per game, no matter the shooting percentage.

What’s Up Next: The next foe for the Bonnies to battle is the Richmond Spiders. This will be a televised game, taking place on Sunday the 31st at 12:30 p.m. Richmond is (9-10) overall and (3-4) in the A10 Conference. The Bonnies are looking for their 13th home win. We hope that the fan section is filled for this game, giving the ladies the support and encouragement that they deserve. This game is also right before the men’s game against the Spiders, so hopefully the RC is packed for the double-header. 

Also, we spoke to Jordan Tyson who was in the crowd for a moment to grab his thoughts on the Lady Bonnies performance this season:

“I think the girls did really well, they’ve been doing well. We’re dominating the competition, we’ve only had one loss in the past 18 games. I’m happy and excited for them and the program and the result, this is also really great for the whole school.”

GAME NOTES: St. Bonaventure has won five of the last seven meetings vs. Saint Joseph’s … the Bonnies held an opponent to 59 points or less for the 15th time this season … SBU shot over 40 percent for the 16th time in the last 18 contests … St. Bonaventure entered the day ranked No. 29 in the RPI while Saint Joseph’s was No. 83 … the Bonnies have won 15 games this season by double digits … the Bonnies led for 36:43 of game time on Wednesday night. ***Per GoBonnies.com