By SPENCER BATES
NEW YORK — Powered by Div. I career-high’s from Melvin Council Jr. and Jonah Hinton, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team rolled to an 86-66 win over Fordham.
Council and Hinton, who were both excellent for the Bonnies in their Atlantic 10 opener at home against VCU, once again stepped up to the plate and delivered for the visitors on the day. Hinton’s previous career-high of 16 points was short-lived, having only been set against VCU on Dec. 31. As for Council, he matched his Div. I career-high of 24 points, a total he reached in Bona’s game against Providence earlier this season.
The duo provided 27 points in the first half alone as their team’s win streak extended to eight games.
A 7-0 run gave the Bonnies a five-point lead early. One in which they never let slip as they led for nearly 36.5 minutes of the affair. However, while the early lead grew to as much as nine, Fordham was able to push back during a first-half lull from Bona. A big reason for the, albeit momentary, slump was a flurry of fouls that put the Rams into the bonus with over 10 minutes to play before halftime. This was a bit off-color for the Bonnies, who currently rank 10th in the country for fewest personal fouls per game, committing just over 13 each time they take the floor. They had eight by the end of the first 20 minutes.
As a result of this, Noel Brown and Chance Moore spent 15 minutes on the bench in the first half. They gave way for Xander Wedlow and Noah Bolanga who picked up big minutes in their absence. But those swaps of personnel were not detrimental to the team according to Bona coach Mark Schmidt, who gave credit to Wedlow and Bolanga for what they brought when their names were called.
“They gave us a lift, they’re getting better,” Schmdit said. “Xander’s getting better, he had a put-back and a couple rebounds, and Noah as well. They’re getting some more confidence, (getting) more comfortable.”
“We’re not there, as you can tell, but we’re going to need the bench to come in more. You never know, as I told our team, you never know when your name is going to get called.”
An 8-0 run from Fordham in the span of just over a minute cut the Bonnies’ lead to just one point.
But it was the way they responded that set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.
St. Bonaventure center Noel Brown (24) gets set in the paint while being closely defended. Brown tallied 14 points against Fordham. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
A 10-0 run, completely composed of buckets from Council and Hinton put Bona comfortably back in the driver’s seat. And while the run may have been broken up after those unanswered points, it closed the half on a 17-5 run, a testament to the stress coach Mark Schmidt puts on his team to respond and execute in the first and last minutes of each half.
“You have to answer, especially on the road, teams are going to get a run … and you got to be able to answer their run,” Schmidt said. “Getting a foul shot, making a big shot … those are the plays that you need to do to break the momentum and get the crowd out of the game. … You got to make big plays at the right time and we’re certainly doing that so far.”
The Bonnies did well to respond when needed, but what played a big factor in their resurgence was their switch to zone defense. Schmidt noted that he saw the zone work well last season in their game at Fordham and the game plan was to use that to disrupt the Rams’ offense once again. And while their foul trouble pushed them into that zone a bit earlier than he anticipated, he was satisfied with what he saw.
“If you watch the game last year down here, we played zone, especially in the second half, and it was effective,” Schmidt said. “We tried to go when (Jahmere Tripp) was in the game, (Ryan Pettis) was in the game. They don’t have a lot of shooters then. That was a game plan going in. But then, with that foul trouble, it really made us go there. We really didn’t have a choice. We tried to protect our guys a little bit. It wasn’t perfect, but I thought we kept the ball in front of us for the most part and didn’t have a lot of breakdowns.”
On the note of effort, Schmidt spoke in his pregame media conference about the need for a complete team effort. This led to him calling on his guards to contribute more on the glass as the season progresses.
His call was answered by his guards against the Rams. Lajae Jones reeled in a game-high 10 rebounds with Hinton and Moore roping in seven and four apiece.
St. Bonaventure guard Jonah Hinton (8) puts up an uncontested 3-pointer. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
But he has also been looking for a more well-rounded effort on the offensive end as well. Once again, his players answered as Bona finished with four players in double-figures.
“We don’t have just one guy,” Schmidt said. “We had four guys in double figures, we had 11 steals, we get a lot of offense off of our defense. Melvin is getting a little bit more comfortable at the point guard position, he still has got to get better at getting into the paint and kicking a little bit more. But he’s been phenomenal for us since Dasonte (Bowen) got injured.”
Up next for Bona is a mid-week affair away from home at Saint Louis. The new-look Billikens, led by 18-points-per-game-scorers Isaiah Swope, Gibson Jimerson and Robbie Avila, are off to a 2-0 start in A10 play.
Schmidt acknowledged the good job that coach Josh Schertz, who was with Avila and Swope at Indiana State last year, has done and that it will take another full-team performance to walk away with a win.
“We got to protect our home court (and) steal some on the road,” Schmidt said. “We got one today, and now, hopefully, we can play well (against Saint Louis). It’s going to take a great effort.”
The Bonnies and Billikens are set to tip-off on Jan. 8 at 8 p.m. with the game being streamed nationally on Peacock.
