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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
Fontbonne Hall’s season didn’t start very promisingly, but it finished strong.
The Bonnies team dropped its first two Catholic High School Athletic Association Brooklyn-Queens Division II games with star forward Kristen Sullivan out with an ankle injury. But then a Christmas-break trip to the Cactus Jam tournament in Arizona brought the inexperienced group together.
Senior guard Kate Oliver said she wasn’t sure if her teammates had a big season in them when the year started, but 14-straight league wins later, Fontbonne is celebrating its fourth regular season crown in the last five years.
“We’ve gotten through it,” Oliver said. “We finished in first.”
The Bonnies will face further adversity heading into the postseason, which begins on Feb. 27 at Monsignor McClancy in the diocesan semifinals. Sullivan, the team’s leading rebounder, may be lost again for the postseason with a bone bruise on her leg, according to head coach Steve Oliver. But Sullivan’s absence won’t be as detrimental as it was when the season began — as the team’s recent victories over McClancy and rival Bishop Kearney proved.
Senior Elizabeth Serrone and junior Arienna Boumoussa have raised the level of their game. Freshmen call ups Meghan Glynn and Emily Lind have blossomed into scoring threats. Oliver has greatly picked up her scoring after the graduation of back backcourt mate Cindy Henderson. Christina Calascione has stepped up to help with the ball-handling duties. Coach Oliver is thrilled with the way the team has progressed.
“It gives you so much confidence moving forward,” he said.
Beating McClancy and Kearney last week even with Sullivan on the bench to claim the division crown certainly gave the Bonnies a shot in the arm heading into the postseason. Sullivan’s teammates have stepped up in her absence.
Lind scored 21 points in the Bonnies’ Feb. 9 match-up versus McClancy. And against Kearney on Feb. 10, Oliver scored nine of her team-high 19 points in the fourth quarter to help hold off a 30-point night from Tigers star Christina Heyer. Meghan Glynn scored 13 points in that game and Serrone added 10 to beat the defending diocesan champions 58–51.
Kate Oliver raising her game at crucial moments has been key to the late-season run, according to her coach — and father.
“She has been playing tremendous against the bigger teams,” coach Oliver said.
Fontbonne’s focus now shifts to the big prize as the Bonnies look to reclaim the diocesan crown after its title defense ended with a semifinal loss to St. John’s Prep last year. Kate Oliver broke her hand in that game, and the Bonnies lost the lead and then the game. This group believes it is playing well enough to bring home its second title in three years.
“I want us to keep playing the way we have been, and try to get it through the semifinals and get to the championship,” Kate Oliver said. “If we keep playing the way we have been playing, it’s going to benefit us.”