McClancy holds off Fontbonne’s late scoring surge

February 4, 2015 Jim Dolan

Photo courtesy of Jim Dolan

McClancy 36 Fontbonne 30

In their first meeting of the season, the fourth place (2-4) Bonnies hosted the third place (5-3) McClancy Crusaders on January 29 at Fontbonne Hall. Unlike the previous game where Fontbonne began with a lackluster start, the Bonnies opened the game with a burst of energy to take on the high-scoring Crusaders from the opening tip off.

Locked in a low-scoring defensive battle, McClancy took the lead by the score of 10-6 at the end of the first quarter. Led by the Crusaders’ Kaitlyn Stenz, the Crusaders pushed ahead to penetrate the Fontbonne defense to take a 17-11 half time lead.

At the end of the third quarter, the Crusaders maintained a 10-point margin (27-17) until the Bonnies went on a run midway in the fourth quarter. At the 5:23 mark, Meaghan Glynn (nine points) drove the lane against three defenders for the lay up, followed by Sarah Sypa’s baseline basket to narrow the score to 30-23.

During a McClancy-called timeout to slow down the Bonnies, Coach Stephen Oliver encouraged his team to hold off the Crusaders saying, “The defense is beautiful, keep it up and keep sliding your feet. Keep getting those good looks.”

Although the timeout was meant to slow Fontbonne down, the Bonnies resumed scoring as Emily Lind sent a three-pointer into the basket, followed by a steal that she sent down court to Breanne McDonald for the score to cut McClancy’s lead to 30-28.

Driving again for another score, Lind was fouled on the subsequent possession. The foul brought Lind to the free throw line where she sank one of two shots to put the score at 30-29, which would be the closest the Bonnies would come to taking the lead.

Even though Fontbonne put on a 13-9 fourth quarter run, the Bonnies were shut down in the final three minutes of the game, as McClancy’s Aybar added a jumper for two more points and Fallon finished the game with a long three-pointer for the 36-30 McClancy win.

In his post game meeting, Coach Oliver addressed the Bonnies’ game effort, telling the team, “I was proud of you tonight; you played defense well and you got some good looks to score. Now let’s keep that up.”

In the preceding game, the second place 5-2 Fontbonne JV dropped its game to first place (8-0) McClancy by the score of 54-37.