By SPENCER BATES
BUFFALO — It’s not all that often a Big 4 matchup carries this much weight.
But entering their clash, the St. Bonaventure (8-1) and Buffalo (8-0) men’s basketball teams had combined for 16 wins and just 1 loss. The media has taken notice. Nods have been given in mid-major power rankings and mock NCAA Tournament drafts have tabbed the Bonnies and Bulls as teams that could still be playing come March.
But for as magical as the start of the seasons have been for both Bona and UB, only one would walk away with the spoils.
For the third year in a row, that victor would be the Bonnies, who led the entire way and pulled out a 77-69 victory.
“One thing that I’m proud of is the basketball that’s being played in Western New York,” Schmidt said. “Canisius has improved, Buffalo has improved greatly. So, when you play a team like Buffalo that has a good net, that’s only going to help us. So hopefully Buffalo wins every game from here on out. We’re 9-1, but it’s not the end. All that’s guaranteed is nine wins, and we’ve got to continue to get better and improve if we want to win the Atlantic 10.”
Finding keys to the game was difficult, for there is almost too much to keep track of in this Buffalo side. If you paid too close attention to one aspect of its game, it would make the quick adjustment and wreak havoc another way.
The Bulls have shot the 3-ball extremely well this season, so chasing them off the arc would be imperative. But once inside, they were just as efficient and, thanks to the efforts of one Daniel Freitag, got to the free throw line often. They averaged under 10 turnovers per game and had shown their capability to claim the tight contest, winning each of their games against Div. I opponents by an average of just over eight points — the lone outlier being an 18-point win over Canisius.
So, the Bona defense, which had been weathered by tests against North Carolina, East Carolina and Florida Atlantic within the last two weeks, was in for yet another challenge.
So, one can imagine Schmidt’s delight when he saw his team force 17 turnovers, keep Buffalo to eight 3-pointers — which is under its per-game average this season, concede just 11 free throws and keep Freitag to just six second-half points.
“They’re just a hard team to guard,” Schmidt said. “They set tons of ball screens and they surround their big guy with four shooters. We messed up sometimes. We didn’t switch the way we needed to switch. We miscommunicated. But in the end, I thought we did a decent job, especially in the foul area. We didn’t allow them to get to the foul line. In the first half, they only had three (foul shots) and that was on the last play of the half when we lost some discipline on the shot fake. So, I’m happy with that.”
St. Bonaventure’s Ilia Ermakov (1) drives past his Buffalo defender. Ermakov scored a career-high 12 points for the Bonnies in their win over the Bulls. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
That being said, not everything was perfect.
The Bulls still shot 54% from the field and nearly 40% from deep — the latter percentage getting a bump from Ryan Sabol who went 5-for-10 from range with three of those buckets coming in the final 2:36 of the game. Bona joined UB with 17 turnovers and down the stretch struggled to get the result over the line with late turnovers handing the hosts a lifeline.
“We got to get better in all phases,” Schmidt said. “We can’t allow a team to score 69 points. We can’t allow a team to shoot that percentage, and we can’t turn the ball over 17 times. We try to keep it at 10 (turnovers) and we had 10 at halftime. Some of them (were because of) Buffalo’s defense, but some of them were just careless errors on our part. We got to work on that.”
The usual suspects for the Bonnies made their usual impact. Cayden Charles went 5-for-11, scoring 14 points and reeling in six boards. Darryl ‘Buddy’ Simmons II had 12 points and dished out five assists. Dasonte Bowen shot the ball well and notched a season-high 11 points. And Frank Mitchell, who scored 11 points grabbed 13 rebounds, officially tied St. Bonaventure icon Andrew Nicholson for the most double-doubles in non-conference play in the Mark Schmidt era, with his seventh of the season.
St. Bonaventure’s Frank Mitchell (00) loses his defender. Mitchell recorded his seventh double-double of the season for the Bonnies with 11 points and 13 rebounds. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
But once again, just like at FAU, the stars of the show came off the bench. Against the Bulls, it was a pair of stellar performances concocted in the same dorm room.
Roommates Daniel Egbuniwe and Ilia Ermakov combined for 27 points on the night. With the former leading all Bona scorers with 15 points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals. The Russian freshman Ermakov scored a career-high 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting.
After the game, Egbuniwe admitted that he’s embraced his role as someone who comes in off the bench and packs a punch. He’s come to adopt a level-headed approach to the game, something he’s learned from Ermakov, which he admitted has only helped his development.
“I’m a firm believer in how our team is built and the talent that we have on our team from one through 15,” Egbuniwe said. “I talk to Ilia a lot, he’s my roommate, one of my closer friends on the team. He’s level headed, and just wants to get better each and every game. He’s struggled with some things, injuries, or whatever the case may be. But having an open mind and a high IQ and being willing to learn the game (is important).
Ermakov received the Bona Belt, but both received significant praise from Schmidt after the game.
“Every kid’s gonna have their day in the sun,” Schmidt said. “Everybody’s gonna get an opportunity. You just got to continue to work at it. You can’t pout when you don’t get the minutes you think (you deserve). You just got to continue to work. And if you’re prepared, and your name gets called, you can produce. Daniel’s done that for us, Achille (Lonati)’s done that and Ilia did it today. That’s a team. … We need guys coming off the bench that are going to be productive for us.”
St. Bonaventure will return home for its next game, set for Dec. 10 against Colgate.
