By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — With four games left in the regular season and just four games currently separating the fifth and 15th placed teams in the Atlantic 10, every game down the stretch becomes that much more meaningful.
St. Bonaventure men’s basketball coach Mark Schmidt knows that. And with his team sitting in ninth place at the moment and eyeing a first-round bye in the A10 Tournament, he also knows that a win over Duquesne in its penultimate home game of the regular season would be massive.
“Every game is important,” Schmidt said. “We have four games left, everybody’s fighting for positioning. It’s a home game. Duquesne beat us at their place, they took care of their home court, and now we got to try to protect our home court. Every game becomes more important as the season goes along and there’s less games. Everything’s magnified.”
A win over Duquesne would avenge what was then Bona’s largest defeat of the season, a 75-57 loss, back on Jan. 18. In that game, the Dukes shot the lights out, finishing with a team field goal percentage of over 46% and a 3-point percentage of over 41%. They turned the ball over just six times, recorded seven steals, and racked up 21 assists.
Duquesne out-scored Bona 42-9 from deep and excelled in transition, scoring 16 points off turnovers and winning 7-2 in the fast-break points category. And as it is late in the season, Schmidt is not anticipating any change in game plan from the Dukes.
“No one changes their game plans from one team to the next,” Schmidt said. “They’re a good team, they got good guards, they got really good size, when they shoot the ball well, just like most teams in our league, they’re really hard to beat. They’re very aggressive defensively, they play downhill and if you play on your heels and you play tentatively, then you’re not going to win. We got out-scored by 33 from beyond the arc down there. If you do that, you’re not going to win, you’re not going to beat anybody, I don’t care who you’re playing.”
In their most previous game, away from home against UMass, the Bonnies received contributions in the form of double-figure points from five different players. A well-balanced attack which led to a 73-59 win. However, the last time they played the Dukes, that was not the case. Only three players, Noel Brown, Melvin Council Jr. and Lajae Jones, finished with 10+ points then. Jonah Hinton was held to 0 points for the only time this season and Chance Moore played just 12 minutes before sitting out the rest of the game with a foot injury.
But since then, Schmidt said he has seen his players gain much more valuable experience when it comes to being multidimensional with their approach and is hoping that will show against Duquesne.
“No one played well in that game, that’s why you lose by 17,” Schmidt said of his team the last time they faced Duquesne. “(But) you learn from it … it’s experience. The Atlantic 10 is a whole different level. So, they’ve gone through their first year, they’ve learned some stuff and hopefully, the second time around, they’ll play better. But they got to be able to shoot the ball, they gotta be able to handle the ball, and against aggressive man-to-man defense, I think they’ve got better at that. Hopefully they can show that tomorrow.”
The Bonnies will be honed in on the turnover margin against the Dukes, especially after turning the ball over 15 times in their most recent game against UMass. Luckily for them, the Minutemen had their own struggles with turning the ball over and the Bonnies out-scored them 23-18 in points-off-turnovers.
But against a team like Duquesne, which has already proven its ability to take full advantage of small turnover margins, Schmidt’s tongue-in-cheek demand that if his team is going to turn the ball over it needs to end up in the stands, will be critical.
“Taking care of the basketball is important, I don’t care who you are,” Schmidt said. “Any team, you (can’t) give them free points, you can’t do that. You got to take care of the basketball, that’s the number one priority on most scouting reports (in terms of) how to beat any team you want. You try to turn them over and get easy points. How to prevent a team from scoring in the open court is (either) put the ball in the basket or take good shots. We only had nine turnovers, which was good, down there. We didn’t shoot the ball well and they shot the heck out of it. … Hopefully we can do a better job guarding them, shooting it ourselves, and just playing a better game.”
Bona will square off against Duquesne after the former enjoyed a week off from games in which Schmidt noted the emphasis would be to get healthy. A much needed break, Schmidt admitted, after some sickness and injuries caught up with the team as of late. Moore, who sat out Bona’s game against Rhode Island on Feb. 12 with an injury and came off the bench against UMass last time out, is poised for a return to the lineup as well, barring any late setbacks.
“We’ve had some sickness and some injuries in the last two weeks,” Schmidt said. “But yeah, Chance is a big part of it. When he plays well, as you saw against UMass, we’re a better team. When he can go for 17 and 10, we have a better chance of winning. So hopefully he’s ready to go tomorrow, and hopefully he can bring that enthusiasm, that energy and that productivity.”
The week, however, was still not enough to see a return for Dasonte Bowen, who, Schmidt said, has not been able to fully practice yet.
St. Bonaventure, hoping to be rejuvenated after the week off, will tip-off against Duquesne in the Reilly Center on Feb. 22 at 4 p.m.
