Saint Vincent women's basketball team hopes to contend in PAC down stretch

For the Saint Vincent women’s basketball team, the 2021-22 season was, well, very un-Saint Vincent-like. It ended with the first sub-.500 record (8-14, 7-10 Presidents’ Athletic Conference) of coach Jimmy Petruska’s 12-year career.

Petruska isn’t one to make excuses, but there were a couple of extenuating factors that contributed to the hiccup. One was an inexperienced roster that struggled to find its identity. The other was a six-week covid interruption.

Between Dec. 3, 2021 and Jan. 18, 2022 — Petruska can rattle off the dates without much pause to think — the Bearcats played one game because of covid ravaging the roster. Then, to catch up, the team had to play nine games in 18 days.

“When you take that kind of a break in the middle of your season, we just couldn’t recover from it,” Petruska said. “Coming out of the break … it was just a meat grinder. A lot of schools in our conference were not in the same boat, so it was an uneven playing field.”

The good news: Petruska believes his players came through that ordeal a tougher, more resolved group. And through the first part of the season, the Bearcats’ performance has reflected that.

Picked to finish sixth in the PAC preseason poll, Saint Vincent stood at 7-2 in the PAC (9-3 overall) heading into the week of Jan. 9. That put them third in the conference.

“It (the interruption last season) brought us all together in a way we didn’t really expect to,” said senior point guard Emily Cavacini, the Bearcats’ leading scorer at 11.3 points per game. “It definitely brought us closer, especially going into (offseason). We really focused on getting stronger, becoming better basketball players and just becoming better teammates and friends outside of it.”

The leadership that might have been lacking last season is no longer an issue. Cavacini is one of four captains, along with senior forward Madison Weber, senior center Ella Marconi and sophomore swing player Emily Thompson.

Thompson has been a revelation. The Mercyhurst Prep grad spent her first season at Edinboro, but she didn’t play any basketball there. She arrived at Saint Vincent last December and appeared in 15 games.

She made quite an impression, and she has continued to reward her teammates’ and coaches’ faith. Though 12 games, she was averaging 8.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and had 14 steals.

But Thompson’s contributions don’t always show up on the stat sheet.

“She’s a prolific scorer, but she’s a dynamic defender as well,” Petruska said. “She’s the point in our press and does a lot of great things defensively.”

Added Cavacini: “She’s an energy source on the offensive side and the defensive side. She’s just an all-around player. When we need her to score, she gets it done. When we need her to get a defensive stop, she gets it done. She’s that gritty player you always want to be playing with.”

Cavacini also has stepped up her game. After starting her college career playing mostly at the two-guard spot, she is back in her more natural point guard position. Petruska said she concentrated on her strength and conditioning in the offseason, and that, coupled with her high basketball IQ, has made her a perfect fit for steering the offense.

She has a team-leading 36 assists in addition to averaging 3.9 rebounds per game and contributing a team-best 22 steals.

The Bearcats also have benefited from what Petruska called maybe the deepest rotation of bigs he has had. Marconi averages 10.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. Weber averages 10.6 points and 6.7 rebounds. Junior forward Lizzie Bender contributes 5.4 rebounds per game, and freshman Camdon Bashor also has given quality minutes to the front court.

There isn’t one player who is blowing away the competition with stats. In fact, it’s difficult to find a Saint Vincent player among the PAC leaders in any major statistical category. But the Bearcats are a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

Saint Vincent ranks second to conference favorite W&J in opponent scoring (50.3 points per game) and leads the PAC in opponent field-goal percentage (.281). Petruska said junior Alana Winkler and freshman Jillian Mannarino do a lot of the dirty work on defense that often goes unnoticed but is invaluable.

On the flip side, the Bearcats lead the conference in field goal percentage (.402).

“We always focus on ‘one more,’ ” Cavacini said, referring to SVC’s passing on offense. “Even if you get the ball and realize you’re open, we always say, ‘You might have a good shot, but there might be an even better shot with one more pass.’ ”

Teams are loath to look ahead, but the Bearcats have a trio of important games coming up: Jan. 18 at home against Grove City, Jan. 21 at Westminster and Jan. 28 at home against W&J.

Those teams generally are recognized as the top of the heap this season. The Bearcats, while aware of the games’ significance, prefer to focus on themselves rather than the opponents, and they are confident they can be in the championship mix come February.

“We haven’t come close to playing our best basketball yet,” Cavacini said. “Coming into the second half of the season, I can definitely say people are going to be seeing some good basketball. We haven’t hit our peak yet.

“We’re definitely a team to be a contender at the end of the season.”