Women's basketball drops another one, St. Bonaventure scores narrow victory

02/12/09 - The University of Rhode Island women's basketball team dropped its fourth straight game Tuesday night after falling to St. Bonaventure University, 54-48. Despite the team's losing streak, head coach Tom Garrick has shown optimism in regards to each of the team's last two letdowns."Some of the things [George Washington University] and St. Bonaventure [University] did played into our favor," he said. "We've held the second and third place teams in our conference to under 38 percent shooting on the road, and we've proven that we're able to compete."

Garrick said that he strongly believes his team can compete with top-level and mid-level teams in the conference.

The Rams were paced by senior guard Sierra Cooper, who led her squad with 13 points while pulling down eight rebounds. Junior guard Lindsay Harris also contributed 12 points and eight boards, but Rhody's backcourt duo was not enough, as Rhode Island became the ninth team this season to score less than 50 points against the Bonnies.

"Things just weren't going our way," Garrick said. "We had our opportunities but the ball just didn't go in the hoop. We had missed layups and missed short shots. We need to find a balance and we need to find more scoring, especially on the road."

The Rams found themselves on the wrong end of a number of runs throughout the contest, including an opening 9-0 run from the Bonnies. The Rams were able to battle back, using a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to two at 16-14, and entered the break trailing by only 6 with the score at 27-21.

Senior guard Crystal Bellinger provided a spark for Rhody, recording two steals and four points within the first 24 seconds of the second half. Bellinger filled up the stat sheet recording eight points, while pulling down six boards, collecting six steals and matched a career-best with eight assists.

"[Bellinger] has done a great job for us," Garrick said. "She was able to capitalize in the right position and provided a spark on both the defensive and offensive side of the ball."

The Bonnies answered with yet another big run, outscoring Rhode Island 11-2 during the next five minutes to push their lead to 11 at 38-27. The Rams cut the deficit to three on a two-point basket from junior forward Andrea Buck, and then knotted the score at 45 apiece with a bucket from Cooper.

"In any run, there's going to be things you can't prevent," Garrick said. "I thought we showed a lot of resiliency and I don't think the overriding factor in any of those runs was mental preparation."

St. Bonaventure pulled away during the next two-and-a-half minutes of play, outscoring Rhody 9-3, including seven clutch free throws. On the day, the Bonnies were 15-22 from the charity stripe compared to only 2-9 for Rhode Island.

"They were a little bit more aggressive," Garrick said, "and there was a direct correlation in second half foul shooting. I thought we were trying to be aggressive but it just didn't happen for us. We have to play a little bit smarter on defense and we can't let people get to the line as easily."

Rhode Island will search for its first win since Jan. 27 when they host Richmond University Saturday. Tip-off is set for 11:30 a.m.

"Richmond's tough," Garrick said. "They're big and athletic and they're in the middle of our league right now. We're going to have to throw some tricks at them and we're going to have to do a number of things to make them uncomfortable.