Women’s College Basketball: St. Bonaventure explodes in second half for the win
The St. Bonaventure women’s college basketball team used a 28-6 second-half run to earn a victory over Eastern Michigan on Saturday afternoon.
After a very slow start, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball team exploded for 46 second-half points to earn a 70-51 victory over Eastern Michigan at the Reilly Center. With the victory, the Bonnies improved to 2-2 while the Eagles dropped to 2-2 on the season.
Makenna Maycock scored 10 of her game-high 15 points in the second half to lead SBU. Maycock, coming off a career-high 21 points on Wednesday, knocked down 6-of-11 shots and grabbed six rebounds. In the meantime, Ariel Harvey tallied 10 of her 13 points after halftime. Bree Paulson added 10 points while Emily Calabrese tied her career in both points (10) and rebounds (7) for the winners.
St. Bonaventure’s stiff 2-3 zone helped the Bonnies build an 18-8 first quarter lead. But the Eagles battled back in the second quarter using a 14-0 run on the heels of three triples from Courtney Lewis, to take a 26-24 halftime lead. Lewis led EMU with 14 points with 12 of those points coming from three-pointers.
It was all SBU in the second half, though.
Mariah Ruff got things started on the defensive end coming away with a steal and later in the possession assisting on Danielle Migliore’s 3-point shot. Bona made 10-of-15 shots during the quarter, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. Six different Bonnies scored during the period, led by Harvey with seven.
St. Bonaventure outscored Eastern Michigan 25-6 in the quarter to take a 49-32 lead. Bona is now averaging 29.5 points and shooting 75.8 percent from the floor during the third quarter through two home games. Overall, the Bonnies shot 48.2 percent from the floor and made 10-of-25 (40.0%) shots from long distance for the game.
“We have proven that we can score it a little bit this year, but we’ve had to get better defensively,” St. Bonaventure head coach Jesse Fleming said. “I was really proud of our third quarter and it was all about our defense.”
The Bonnies held the Eagles to single digits in both the first and third quarters. They limited the Eagles to 31.7 percent (19-60) shooting overall and turned 19 turnovers into 27 points.
Congratulations senior Mariah Ruff - she becomes the 11th player in program history with 300 career assists! #Bonnies || #TCR pic.twitter.com/zRVEwAebIL
— Bonnies Women's Basketball (@BonniesWBB) November 18, 2017
Ruff, the Bonnies’ leading scorer, led the way defensively with three steals and three rebounds (four overall). However, the senior point guard didn’t score until the final seconds of the third quarter when she banked in a buzzer-beating three-pointer. She did add 10 assists to give her 306 career dimes, ninth most in school history. Ruff is also 24th in program history with 986 career points.
With the loss, Eastern Michigan falls to 0-2 on the road. The Eagles have out-rebounded all four of their opponents this year.
EMU leads the all-time series 2-1.