Bonnies soar over Eagles to take second

Fontbonne 52 St. Edmund Prep 46

After beating St. Edmund Prep 52-46 at their Senior Game and a subsequent 67-42 win over St. Agnes, the 9-3 Bonnies captured the regular season’s second place going into February’s winter break. To open the season, the Bonnies had lost a close 46-40 game with the Eagles (7-5), the one team that could derail the Bonnies’ bid for the upcoming second place playoff seed.

The Bonnies appeared to be handily in control of the game coming off a 32-20 halftime lead until their 40-25 third quarter lead simply evaporated mid-way in the fourth quarter. The game’s high scorer, Kelly O’Donnell (26 points), brought the Eagles back to close the gap with 4:11 left in the final quarter. With the game on the line for second place, the Fontbonne faithful watched in disbelief as O’Donnell sank a three-point shot that was followed with a backwards running baseline lay-up to put the Eagles within two points of
Fontbonne, 40-38.

Consequently, with the game in jeopardy, Fontbonne Coach Steve Oliver called time out to stop the Eagles’ momentum. Re-grouping after the timeout, the Bonnies scored 12 more points in the remaining minutes as Meghan Glynn (10 points), Erin Kennedy (10 points) and Breanne McDonnell (13 points) stretched out the Bonnies’ narrow two-point lead for the eventual 52-46 win with defensive rebounding along with field goals and critical foul shooting.

Although the Bonnies and Bishop Kearney’s Tigers finished with identical 9-3 records, Fontbonne was awarded second place, which places them automatically into the semi-final playoff round, since the Bonnies won both regular season contests with the Tigers.
Honoring outgoing seniors Meagan McKenna and Sarah Sypa, Coach Oliver stated, “Both girls have been a pleasure to coach. Meagan was one of this year’s team captains and she really helped to bring the team together. I asked Sarah to be on this team as a transfer student and she became one of my best foul shooters.”

As far as the seniors’ plans after graduation, McKenna is planning on a nursing career with her sights set on SUNY Binghamton, while Sypa is considering Quinnipiac and Penn State. For Sypa, her favorite memories will be this season’s first home win over Kearney along with the team’s December Arizona tournament trip. Noting the Arizona trip as her favorite too, McKenna stated that she will actually miss the team’s Sunday morning practices which turned out to be a fun and bonding experience.