The Charlotte 49ers women’s basketball team continued their home-court dominance Wednesday night with a 64-58 win over visiting St. Bonaventure. The Niners won their 11th consecutive game at Halton Arena and will look to cap off a near-perfect home campaign when they face UMass on Feb. 28th.
“Halton is as good as anywhere I’ve ever been,” Niner Head Coach Karen Aston said of the home-court advantage. “In a women’s game, if you could get this lower bowl filled, I don’t think anybody could beat our team just because I think it’s that good of an atmosphere.”
The Niners dismantled the Bonnies right from the start and never looked back. Charlotte had four different players score as part of a 10-0 run to open the game and used stifling defense to hold the Bonnies to just 15 first-half points. Senior Shannon McCallum led the Niners in the first half with 15 points and four rebounds as the Niners took a 27-15 lead into the break. Charlotte dominated every statistical category in the first half, winning the rebounding battle 21-14, points in the paint 14-2, points off turnovers 15-6 and in fast break points, 10-0.
“It was a very good win. That was a very good team that we played and we played a very intelligent basketball game in the first half,” Aston said. “We still have lulls in the second half where we just go to sleep a little bit, but winning is winning. And at this point, you take a win.”
The Bonnies got to within seven points at the 16:07 mark of the second half, 29-22 but couldn’t contain McCallum and the rest of the Niners as they built their lead to as much as 14. Charlotte kept the Bonnies at a considerable distance for the rest of the half and was able to hold on just long enough for the six-point win.
Jessica Jenkins led St. Bonaventure with 18 points while Mega Van Tatenhove added 13 more as the Bonnies dropped to 17-8 on the season, 5-5 in conference play. Charlotte also had three players in double-figures, led by McCallum’s game-high 24 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Erin Floyd scored 12 points and seven rebounds while Ashley Spriggs scored 10 points and cleaned the glass with eight boards for Charlotte.
“I thought she (McCallum) was terrific today,” Aston said. “I thought she made some really timely plays for us. Not just her points, she had close to a double-double and had six assists. She just played a complete basketball game today.”
The win moved the Niners to 15-9 overall and 8-2 in the A-10, keeping them just two games back of sixth-ranked Xavier in the A-10 loss column. Charlotte hits the road for three straight games against Temple, St. Louis and Xavier before they return home to take on UMass on Feb. 28th for their Senior Day.
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