Women’s basketball notched a second straight win in conference play against St. Bonaventure Saturday afternoon at home.
The Colonials (9-14, 2-8 A-10) downed the Bonnies (12-11, 4-8 A-10) in a 60–47 comeback victory to avenge their Feb. 2 loss on the road in their previous time out. After trailing through three quarters, GW put it all together in the final quarter to win their first game at home in conference play.
“Both times it was a team that we felt like we could beat if we stayed to our game plan and just played in sync as a team,” redshirt junior forward Mayowa Taiwo said. “And so today, we had a rough three quarters, but we kept working along and we got to the fourth quarter – we started clicking.”
Junior guard Sheslanie Laureano led GW with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting while graduate student guard Sierra Bell collected 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and 1-of-2 from deep. Graduate student guard Kyara Frames and Taiwo also reached double figures to go along with seven rebounds each.
On the other side of the court, Johnson led the Bonnies with 17 points on 8-of-18 shooting, followed by redshirt senior guard Tori Harris with 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting.
Both teams struggled on offense to start the first quarter, but the Bonnies opened the scoring with a 3-ball to take the lead. Taiwo gave the Colonials their first lead of the game with a layup before Harris drained a 3-pointer to regain the advantage with 6:26 left to play.
Taiwo retook the lead yet again for the Colonials on the break after Frames hit her with a pass wide open near the basket. Harris nailed another uncontested 3-pointer before Johnson capped the quarter with a layup to give the Bonnies a 11-8 lead.
Despite leading the rebound battle 13 to 8, the Colonials failed to convert their second-chance opportunities, hitting just 3-of-16 from the field and 0-of-7 from beyond the arc. St. Bonaventure went just 4-of-13 from the field but shot 3-of-6 from deep.
The Bonnies found their rhythm in the second quarter on the back of some flash plays by Johnson to earn a 20-10 lead. Head Coach Caroline McCombs called a timeout with 6:03 left in the half to help the Colonials regroup.
“Early on in the game, we had missed some scouting assignments, and so we just weren’t ready to go,” McCombs said. “In that way, I think we ended up making some substitutions, just having them lock in on defense and understand we have to get stops so we can get the ball and do what we want to do on offense.”
GW came out of the timeout seemingly rejuvenated, and Frames kicked off an 8-0 scoring run to cut the deficit to two. But the Bonnies roared back with a 7-0 run of their own before the Colonials cut the lead to 27-22 heading into the break.
“Just trusting each other,” Bell said. “I know we were just going through adversity the entire game. So I think just trusting one another and being in sync was huge for us.”
After opening the first half of the quarter 4-of-7 from the floor, St. Bonaventure cooled off, finishing just 1-of-5 from deep and 7-of-17 overall. GW netted four points off turnovers, four on the fast break and four second-chance points to improve from the first quarter.
Harris reestablished some distance in the third quarter with a trey, but Laureano responded with a pair of layups. St. Bonaventure earned their largest lead of the game at a score of 40-29 with 5:12 left in the quarter after Harris converted a layup and free throw following a foul by junior guard Essence Brown.
Both teams traded points until the Colonials were able to trim the lead slightly going into the final quarter with a score of 45-37. Despite improving their shooting average to a game high 42.9 percent, the Colonials had yet to score from deep and were down in rebounds 12 to seven for the first time all game.
Johnson hit a jumper to temporarily provide some distance before Bell drained a 3-pointer to knot the game up at 47-47. Frames tacked on another trey to give the Colonials their first lead since the first quarter and force a timeout by the Bonnies with 6:41 left to play.
From there, GW never looked back, holding St. Bonaventure to just 2 points for the entire quarter. Bell converted a layup, followed up by an Engel 3-ball to hand the Colonials a 9-point lead.
After some back and forth defensive play in which neither team could score, the Bonnies started fouling with 2:02 remaining, but it was ultimately in vain as the Colonials closed out the game with a 60-47 lead. The Colonials finished the quarter 9-of-14 from the field and 4-of-8 from deep, a vast improvement from the prior quarters.
The Colonials are looking to continue their win streak against Saint Louis Monday at 4 p.m. for another home matchup.
