By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — Faced with a Youngstown State team that was relentless in its pursuit of stealing a win at the Reilly Center, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team did not fold.
With 11 lead changes and 11 ties throughout the game, the Bonnies and Penguins went as back-and-forth as they possibly could. Neither team scored a consecutive basket from the field until more than 10 minutes had come off the clock and, flash forward nearly two hours later, the game was still in the balance with the scores level with under a minute to play.
It was time for a gut check. Bona had just four possessions to keep their blemish-free record to start the season intact. Fortunately, when the lights were their brightest, the Bonnies did not wilt.
“You can’t quit, you have to make adjustments, and I thought our guys did that,” Bona men’s basketball coach Mark Schmidt said.
Youngstown was lethal from behind the arc in the first half, shooting over 41% from deep. It was that which prevented the Bonnies from escaping their guests. The second half was a different story. The Penguins saw just three 3-point attempts fall over the course of the latter 20 minutes of the affair compared to their seven in the first.
Schmidt’s team made an adjustment and ultimately that was a major contributing factor to the win. But Youngstown still hung around even after their deep ball stopped dropping. The visitors made an adjustment as well and got downhill, drawing fouls and still scoring at over a 51% tick from the floor.
So while he was happy with one of the changes his players made over the course of the contest, Schmidt warned that one alteration can’t lead to giving up other aspects of the game or else they will be right back at square one.
“We did a bit better job of keeping them off the 3-point line, but now you have to do a better job of keeping the ball in front of you,” Schmidt said. “They got to the foul line a little bit too much. They went downhill a little bit too much. So that’s an area that we have to shore up.”
In the victory, Bona received the typical massive contributions from its ‘big three’ of Cayden Charles, Darryl ‘Buddy’ Simmons II and Frank Mitchell who have all emerged as the figureheads of the program this season. Each guy got theirs and the trio combined for 51 of the team’s 84 total points. But keeping pace was Amar’e Marshall who provided a significant punch off the bench with a full stat sheet of 17 points, five rebounds and three assists. Having picked up an injury early in the season, Marshall had been ramping back up to full pace ahead of the Youngstown clash and noted that he was simply willing to do whatever it took to help the team win.
That sentiment was just as important to hear for Schmidt as the points he provided on the night.
“I think we have good guys, guys that are team-oriented,” Schmidt said. “Now you can say that, but when adversity hits and someone’s not playing well, or someone gets hurt, then that gets tested. I tell them all the time, you got to be prepared. You never know when your opportunity is going to present itself, and if you’re prepared, then you’re going to have a chance to be successful. And Amar’e did that. He did a tremendous job, not just shooting the basketball, but defending and rebounding and passing the ball. It’s a great example to other guys that if you just continue to work, you’ll get your chance and have an opportunity to be successful.”
Bona has seen its near-entirely new roster congeal in a positive way through four games. Its next opponent in Robert Morris has seen the same.
Last year, the Colonials were the Horizon League regular season and tournament champions. They reached the NCAA Tournament and even pushed eventual Elite 8-bound Alabama to the brink, having held a lead with under seven minutes to go in its Round of 64 affair. But from that tournament team, just one player returns. Still, Robert Morris has managed to build a well-rounded squad that, as of the time of writing, is the only Horizon League team to have collected three wins out of their first four games — one of which being a solid overtime victory over Drake.
“It’s a whole different team, just like us,” Schmidt said. “They’re well coached, … they brought in some good guys that look like they’re team-oriented, they’re really aggressive, and they can shoot and drive the ball. They got a lot of good pieces, and for them to go to Drake and beat Drake is a great victory for them. … Just like everybody else, they’re a work in progress, but they’re aggressive, they got decent size and they got good guards, and that’s one of the reasons why they’ve got off to a 3-1 start.”
In its win over Drake, Robert Morris was solid defensively, holding the Bulldogs to 37% from the field and 26% from beyond the arc. But for as much as its schematics were effective against Drake, Schmidt does not intend on changing up what his team does on the offensive side of the floor. He noted that if his team is going to ever make a change it will be on the defensive end.
“We’re not going to change,” Schmidt said. “We try to push the ball in transition, try to score in the first 12 seconds of the shot clock and if we don’t then we get into our offense and try to get the ball into the paint with the dribble, the drive, or the pass. Once we get into the paint, we kick it out, and hopefully we can make some shots and go to the offensive glass. It’s the same game plan. From a defensive standpoint, you play it a little bit different depending on personnel and (the other team’s) strengths. But from an offensive standpoint, you really don’t change. You play your game, and hopefully that will allow us to score some points.”
A factor that Schmidt has keyed in on from Robert Morris is North Carolina A&T transfer Nikolaos Chitikoudis. Clocking in at 6-9, he will be a threat in the paint for the Colonials. But perhaps more than his physical stature, the intelligence with which he plays has the ability to cause issues for Bona.
“(Chitikoudis’) good, he’s smart,” Schmidt said. “You can double-team him, but he can pass the ball. He can shoot it from 15 feet, he’s got ball skill, he’ll take you off the bounce and he’s got really good size, but he can score with the back to the basket. So, you have to either double him or fake a double and do different things. … He’s somebody that is going to present a lot of problems for us.”
Chitikoudis is currently scoring an average of 15.5 points and roping in 8.5 rebounds per game. Ryan Prather Jr. — the only returner from last year’s team — and DeSean Goode are the two other Colonials averaging double-figures so far this season. Prather averages 10.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game while Goode is scoring 10.3 points and reeling in 8.5 rebounds.
St. Bonaventure and Robert Morris will tip off on Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. in the Reilly Center.
