Lady Bonnies Win

[bonastud]

The ladies beat St. Joes today in the first round of the A 10 tourney! Next up Temple...who they beat earlier in the year at the RC.

[butlerta]

I believe they only won by one point and Temple I think is the #2 seed in the tournament, so it will not be an easy rematch for the ladies.
Great to see them advance!!
GO BONAS!!!!

[homersbu]

Women pull away in second half by shooting the lights out: 59% from field, 67% from 3-point (6-0f-9), and 10-of-11 from the line. Mitchell has 17 to lead six players with 8 or more points. Must feel good for Crowley to justify his Coach of the Year honor.

[fjs64]

gobonnies.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/030609aab.html

[woof]

Bona Women Find New Formula

By Chuck Pollock
Olean Times Herald

CHARLOTTE - There was a time when the formula for beating St. Bonaventure's women's basketball team was simple: stop Dana Mitchell and Katelyn Murray and you win.

But this year has been different.

Oh, they're still the same offensive threats who have amassed over 1,000 career points each.

However, now they have help.

And that, more than any other reason, is why this year's Bonnies have had a record-setting campaign.

Victory No. 21 came Friday evening here at Halton Arena in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament via an occasionally tense 72-65 win over Saint Joseph's.

The triumph propelled the seventh-seeded Bonnies (21-9, 10-5) into tonight's quarterfinal matchup against No. 2 Temple (20-8, 11-3), a team that SBU edged 55-52 in January at the Reilly Center.

THE BONNIES advanced using their new formula.

Oh, Mitchell, the junior forward, had her obligatory game-high 17 points and Murray, the senior guard, added 10, including two three-pointers.

But what pushed St. Bonaventure into the next round was the performance by a pair of freshmen.

Guard Jessica Jenkins added 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point land and, for good measure, she added the two free throws that iced the victory.

Meanwhile, forward Megan Van Tatenhove added 11 points and three assists.

That combination of experience and youth was too much for No. 10 Saint Joseph's (13-16, 5-10), a team that had beaten the Bonnies 18 straight between 1995 and 2003 and had won four in a row entering this season.

BONA'S Jim Crowley, the A-10 Coach of the Year, admitted his two youngsters have given opponents something new to think about.

"Other teams try to take those two away and they're finding out we have other weapons," he said. "I think it's tough when you're so ingrained to stop Murray and Mitchell and then they find out we have other weapons. They're not sure what to do."

Saint Joseph's Cindy Griffin admitted as much.

"The three-point shooting they were able to convert did us in," the coach admitted. "They had nine points (on treys) in one stretch and that was the dagger for us."

Her reference was to a series of three triples in a span of 2:40 of the second half when the game went from a tie at 35 to an 8-point Bona cushion. Murray, Erica Schiefen and Jenkins all hit treys in that span and that trio combined to hit 8-of-12 three-pointers.

BEST OF ALL for Crowley, his Bonnies moved into the quarterfinals for only the sixth time in 22 trips to the A-10 playoffs.

And if you doubt the significance of that advance, consider that in the second game on Friday, George Washington, seed fifth and one of the conference's elite teams, was stunned by the tourney's lowest seed, No. 12 Rhode Island, 62-58.

Even Crowley admitted, as his team took the court, "That (GW upset) might have been in the back of our mind a little bit, but hopefully this win got it out."

Now the Bonnies are faced with trying to beat Temple again.

"They're a different team right now and I think we're a different team, he pointed out. "Now we're trying to do it on a neutral court. "All I know is, they've won five in a row and beaten five very good teams (St. Joe's, Charlotte, Richmond, then No. 13 Xavier and GW). There's not much preparation involved. We're who we are ... they're who they are. Let's just see what happens."