By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — St. Bonaventure men’s basketball coach Mark Schmidt has been known to put emphasis on playing well in the first and last five minutes of each half.
Unfortunately for him, a poor display in the early minutes of its game against George Mason was all that it took to put Bona in a hole it was unable to dig itself out of. As a result, it suffered a 75-62 loss, the fourth in its last five games.
At the under-16 media timeout, the Bonnies already trailed by eight and the gap only widened from there. The deficit reached as much as 13 in the first 10 minutes of the game and 18 in the first half overall. And despite a much better second-half performance, Schmidt noted the slow start was the biggest difference-maker.
“The first 10 minutes, to me, that was the difference,” Schmidt said. “If you look at the last 30 minutes, we won by one. It was the first 10 minutes of the game. They knocked us back. … But give our guys credit, in the second half our defensive pressure got better, we stayed connected, they shoot 35% (from the field), 16% from 3s (in the second half). We did a much better job in the last 20 minutes of the game. But you can’t get off to a bad start and get down to a really talented team by 15 in the first 10 minutes.”
And to Schmidt’s point, a change was evident in the second half. While the Bonnies were only able to cut the deficit they faced at halftime by one when the clock showed all zeroes, the defensive effort picked up dramatically.
George Mason shot 60.9% from the field in the first half as a team and an even 75% from deep. By the end of the game, those percentages fell 13.8% and 35% respectively.
Of course, underlining the game were the injuries that have been sustained by crucial members of the Bona squad. Jaxon Edwards and Dasonte Bowen continued to occupy spots on the bench while recovering from their respective ailments. And while both of their absences have left sizable holes in the rotation, the new injury to Chance Moore — one of the offensive leaders on the team — left a crater.
Ahead of the matchup Schmidt noted that it was going to be the first real test for Noah Bolanga, Miles Rose and Duane Thompson, who were set to absorb Moore’s minutes. Bolanga got the start on the night and while all three provided something to the cause, it was Thompson who packed the biggest punch, coming off the bench and scoring 10 points in the first half on his way to finishing with 16 overall to go along with a game-high seven rebounds.
St. Bonaventure guard Duane Thompson (1) draws heavy contact while attempting to rise up for a layup. Thompson finished with 16 points for the Bonnies against the Patriots. (Spencer Bates)
The trio, which was called upon even more when Lajae Jones suffered a bloody nose and missed a grand portion of the first half, drew a good amount of praise from Schmidt after the loss. While he noted it wasn’t perfect, he hopes those players use the experience as they continue to develop.
“I thought Duane played well, you look at his stat line (and it’s) decent, other than the minus-14 plus/minus. But he gave us a lift. He played hard. He didn’t play perfect, but he gave us some energy. I thought Noah didn’t get off to a good start, probably nerves, but he made a couple shots and hopefully that can help him as we go forward because we’re a little limited with what we have. We need those young guys to come off the bench and try to give us a lift.”
The offense was able to gain some traction late in the first half, going on a 9-0 run immediately after falling behind by 18. Melvin Council Jr. played a big role in the resurgence of the Bona offense, scoring all 10 of his first-half points in the final 4.5 minutes. This included three driving layups that drew fouls and brought the Bona home crowd back to life.
But however good it was to see the offense find a rhythm, Schmidt, who acknowledged a good level of effort from his players, noted that by the time it did, it was too little, too late.
“When we got down by 15, it was almost like there was more of a sense of urgency,” Schmidt said. “But we just can’t get down 15. We’re a little bit short handed, but … we just got to get off to a better start. … There was a lot of things that went against us, but I thought our effort was good tonight, especially the last 30 minutes.”
That effort will need to be sustained and carried over into the Bonnies’ next affair as the road ahead of them does not get easier. Their next two games — away at VCU and then home against Dayton — will require just as much of an effort if they are to keep their recent run of losses from snowballing.
“We just gotta keep on working,” Schmidt said. “It’s just character. Life is going to hit you, throw a lot of curveballs at you. You gotta deal with it. And I thought it showed when we got down by 15. Things weren’t going well, (we were) down by 14 at halftime. (But) we fought, we showed some character. We didn’t lay down and it was good to see.”
St. Bonaventure guard Jonah Hinton (8) looks to lose his defender as the offense gets set up. (Spencer Bates)
St. Bonaventure will look to right the ship next time out on Jan. 24 at VCU. Tip-off for that game is set for 9 p.m.
