By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — Against Richmond, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team got back in the win column after consecutive losses and re-established its defensive prowess at the same time.
Ever since the start of Atlantic 10 play, Bona has gotten away from its defensive mindset. Instead, opting to go score-for-score with its opponents thus far. For its first two games, in-conference, it worked, but in its last two, it suffered losses due to lapses on the defensive side of the court.
However, when the Bonnies welcomed the Spiders into the Reilly Center on Jan. 15, their defense made a triumphant return as it grabbed a 63-49 win over the Spiders.
“I thought our identity was back, defending and rebounding and taking care of the basketball,” Bona coach Mark Schmidt said. “When they do those three things, you have a chance to win in every game. In the last four games, if we scored 63 points, we would have lost by double digits. That’s why this game, especially for our team, is about defense. When you defend offense and take care of the basketball, you can win when you score 63 points. It’s all about defense and that identity, that toughness and I thought that we showed that tonight, and we showed some mental toughness when they took the lead. We fought back and we made the plays.”
This return to their identity is something Schmidt had acknowledged he wanted to see from his players prior to the game. In his pregame media availability, he noted how too often teams are shooting too high of a percentage from the floor and from deep. Against the Spiders, Schmidt saw his team complete what he called “the trifecta.”
That means holding a team to under 40% from the field (Richmond shot an even 37%), under 30% from 3-point range (Richmond finished 29.6%) and keep their turnovers under 10 (the Bonnies finished with six).
“Everybody’s going to hit some shots, the Atlantic 10 has really good players, but I thought we did a good job of switching,” Schmidt said. “You lose to Richmond, not by the 3, but by back doors, by the easy baskets and I thought we did a really good job. I think they might have got us twice all game and that’s a credit to our guys and the discipline that they had. In order to beat (Richmond), you got to be really disciplined, you got to play for 30 seconds for 40 minutes, you can’t relax. As soon as you relax, they get you. So I give our guys credit.”
That defense was made all the more important as Bona struggled to get the points flowing in the early minutes. Offensive sets were slow to get set up and often ended up unrewarded. But, it was the effort on the other end of the floor that allowed the scores to remain close.
St. Bonaventure guard Melvin Council Jr. (11) looks to drive along the baseline. (Spencer Bates)
It was not until Jonah Hinton hit three consecutive, unanswered 3-pointers for the hosts that the offense woke up.
“I don’t think we really got off to a great start, but when you’re struggling, you need to make some shots,” Schmidt said. “Defense and rebounding can only go so far. You’re not going to win if you don’t score. The ball’s got to go in the basket at some time. But, when you’re not scoring and you’re not defending, then you don’t have any chance. We had 22 points in the paint, (we were) +10 there, +7 on turnovers and +10 on fast break points. One of the reasons for that is because we took care of the basketball.”
Hinton led Bona with a game-high 19 points and chalked up his performance to the play down low by his co-captain Noel Brown, who may have only finished with two points on the night, but was a big draw for defenders which opened up space to shoot.
“We definitely got the ball into the post a lot more and Noel is a force down there, so whenever we got it down there, they had to double and that just put them in rotations and in bad situations,” Hinton said. “We ran a lot of five-out, got the ball moving a lot more. I think in the past few games (the offense) has been a little bit stagnant and that was our emphasis for practices throughout the week, just trying to get the ball moving, getting more touches, and having the defense move and shift. Ultimately, that gets us open shots.”
Hinton was joined in double figures by Chance Moore (15 points, nine rebounds) and Melvin Council Jr. (14 points, seven rebounds, five assists).
The Bonnies closed out the first half in excellent style, with a 15-2 run over the last seven minutes of play. But, they saw all their work erased soon after the interval as the Spiders started the second half with a 15-1 run, taking a narrow advantage.
But, once again, Schmidt was left giving his players their flowers after answering the big run with yet another one of their own — this time a 12-2 run that gave them a three possession lead.
“I thought we played a really good last eight minutes, 10 minutes of the first half, especially defensively,” Schmidt said. “Then, we came out (in the second half) and didn’t play very well. Give Richmond credit, they go on a 15-1 run and take the lead. But then our guys showed some character and answered. Basketball is a game of runs, and you got to be able to handle those runs, and then you got to be able to answer and I thought we did that.”
Richmond continued to battle through the second half, but ultimately no true comeback attempt was in the cards as Bona improved its A10 record to 3-2 and its overall record to 15-3 on the season.
St. Bonaventure guard Jonah Hinton (8) rises up for a dunk attempt. (Spencer Bates)
St. Bonaventure will make the short trip down to Pittsburgh to face Duquesne for its next game on Jan. 18. Tip-off between the Bonnies and Dukes is set for 2 p.m.
