The St. Bonaventure Bonnies (7-0) continued their impressive play this season by beating the Quinnipiac women’s basketball team in the Bobcats’ home opener, 77-67, Wednesday. The loss drops the Bobcats to 1-3 on the season.
The Bonnies’ average margin of victory before beating Quinnipiac was 21.5, and no team had come within six points of them when the first half ended. After a strong first half led by Quinnipiac’s Courtney Kaminski’s nine points, the score was 37-34 St. Bonaventure.
But the second half started poorly for the Bobcats.
“Five minutes into the second half we came out with missed layup, turnover, missed layup, missed layup, turnover,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “That, to a good team, gives them enough cushion.”
Bonnies guard Jessica Jenkins hit three straight 3-pointers to open the half, and gave her team a 12-point lead.
With four minutes left, the deficit was seven points, but Megan Van Tatenhove (27 points) and Jenkins (25 points) combined for eight of the team’s last 12 points to put the game out of reach.
Kaminski finished the game with a team-high 18 points. Redshirt freshman Felicia Barron scored 13 points, collected four steals and had her second straight game with six assists, while freshman Ryann Simmons scored 11 points off the bench with two steals.
Barron and Simmons played very well together at the end of the game, creating mismatches for the opposing defense by utilizing their quickness. The two combined for six of the team’s 13 steals.
One of the Bobcats’ biggest problems was turnovers. They finished the game with 18, including five from Barron. Team defense was also a problem as the Bonnies shot 50 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from beyond the arc, en route to hitting nine threes.
In addition, St. Bonaventure shot 33 free throws compared to Quinnipiac’s 22, which crippled any hopes of a comeback. Quinnipiac was also outscored 20-14 in the paint.
Quinnipiac will head to Rhode Island this weekend for the Brown Bear Classic. The team’s first matchup is against Morgan State at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
