Last season, St. Bonaventure beat Richmond twice by a combined total of 17 points. St. Bonaventure plays at Richmond on Wednesday night at 7. The game can be viewed on www.richmondspiders.com, but it’ll cost money.
The Spiders have three players making up 54.6 percent of its scoring. Janelle Hubbard, Lauren Tolson and Genevieve Okoro pace an offense that ranks fifth in the Atlantic 10 in scoring.
“Richmond has very good players inside and out, so you have to guard them all over the court,” said Bona head coach Jim Crowley.
Hubbard scored 30 points on 29 shots against St. Bonaventure last season, including 3-8 from the 3-point line. She’s shooting 44 percent from deep this year, which makes her a very difficult cover.
“Hubbard has improved her 3, which makes her very tough to guard cause she has a great game off the bounce,” said Crowley. “We must limit her getting into a rhythm and really team defend to make her score over people.”
The Bonnies have been great at team defending this season. St. Bonaventure’s first in Atlantic 10 in opponent field goal percentage. They’re second in the Atlantic 10 in scoring defense, and Crowley loved the effort in Bona’s league opening win against UMass.
“I thought we were very solid on the defensive end,” said Crowley. The Bonnies held UMass to 34.5 percent shooting from the field. Richmond, however, will be a different test on Wednesday night.
The Spiders dropped its A-10 opener in overtime to Fordham last weekend, and return home for their first game since a mid-December win over Wake Forest. Limiting Okoro is key for St. Bonaventure. She averaged 10 points in the two games last year, which really pleased Crowley.
“Okoro is very talented and plays really hard,” he said. “We found success last year by limiting her scores around the basket.”
St. Bonaventure did that by rotating well and team defending.
“Position is key with her,” said Crowley. “She moves very well and if you are not really with your position she will make you pay.”
Richmond and St. Bonaventure have played two common opponents in the non-conference schedule: Georgetown and James Madison. They both beat Georgetown, while losing to James Madison.
Many of the same faces will take the floor Wednesday night. The same faces that played each other twice a year ago. They’re familiar with each other, so it should be a close game.
“It’s a new year and while rosters are similar people have been added and lost as well as improvements made,” said Crowley. “We know each other well and for us to be successful we will need to make it a half court game, take care of the ball and limit their easy scores.”
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