The Bona Venture

Issue date: 2/27/09 Section: Women's Basketball

Dana Mitchell drives to the basket over Temple's Marli Bennett in Saturday's 67-63 loss

As guard LaKeisha Eaddy squared up to take her foul shots Saturday afternoon, the women's basketball team could feel the inevitability, looking at the game clock at the Halton Arena in Charlotte, N.C.

Three seconds remained in the game and, as Temple's junior guard sank both shots to put her team up by four, three seconds remained on the Bonnies' season

That 21-win season, the best in program history, ended Saturday with a 67-63 quarterfinal loss to the Owls in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

"I thought today our kids showed what our program has come to stand for," Coach Jim Crowley said. "We played a very good Temple team. That Temple team was better than us today, but we gave ourselves a chance."

That chance grew with the Bonnies' 10-3 run to start the game behind seven points early from Dana Mitchell. She finished with a team-high 24 points. With Bonnies up 13-5, Eaddy broke up the run and Bonaventure's fast start with a 3-pointer at 13:52.

The basket launched a 16-0 Temple run, punctuated with a Shaqwedia Wallace 3-pointer with 10:23 remaining in the half.

Crowley said his team's defense played a strong game, but Temple's offensive stars took control.

"We held Eaddy, and she found people. We ball-pressured Wallace and she made shots," he said.

Megan Van Tatenhove reinstituted the Bonnies' scoring at 9:46. The freshman went on a mini run, scoring the game's next six points in a row and hitting a 3-pointer after an Eaddy jumper with 7:26 remaining in the half to pull the Bonnies within one at 22-23. Van Tatenhove finished with 17 points.

Averaging 14 points per game in her first conference tournament, the 6-foor, 1-inch freshman said she knew she had to raise her game as an inside player.

"It's a completely different level. You have your non-conference and your conference. Then you have the tournament," she said. "I knew that I had to step up."

The Owls ran a 11-6 run into the break, taking a 36-28 lead at the half.

Opening the second half with a Priscilla Edwards layup, the Bonnies went cold. The Owls rattled off seven straight points to build a 43-30 lead, the game's largest.

Crowley said at that point, his team channeled an attitude he saw many times during its historic season.

Continued...

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