By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — The overall record in the last eight matchups between the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team and Canisius is split down the middle at 4-4, with the former evening up the record with a win last season.
The Bonnies will look to push that recent record in their favor and extend the all-time series lead over the Golden Griffins to 104-69 with a second consecutive victory in their home-opener on Nov. 8 — the last time that occurred was in the 2017 and 2018 matchups between the two.
Bona is coming off an impressive win in its season-opener over mid-major powerhouse Bradley in which Darryl ‘Buddy’ Simmons II showed off his clutch capabilities, leading the way with a dazzling 24-point, five-rebound, four-assist performance. Other new additions, Cayden Charles, Joe Grahovac and Frank Mitchell, got in on the action with solid stat lines in their debuts for the team as well. But according to head coach Mark Schmidt, the win over the Braves was just the first step on a long journey.
“We’re still a work in progress,” Schmidt said. “We got to continue to work and play together, and understand what each guy’s strengths are. … Our ball-screen defense has to be better, our on-ball defense has to be better, our rotations have to be better. Offensively, we got to do a better job in the open court, getting numbers, making it easier on ourselves to score the basketball, and then we got to execute. I thought our effort was good, it’s just the execution part. And that’s something that, hopefully, as we go along in the season, we’ll get better at.”
One of Schmidt’s biggest takeaways from the opener against Bradley was that his team got beat the exact way he wanted to be able to beat other teams: through the paint. The Braves outscored the Bonnies by 10 points (34-24) in the paint with Simmons’ 3-ball efficiency helping make up the difference in the end.
Shoring up the interior defense is something Schmidt admitted has been the focal point of practice since they returned from Rock Hill, South Carolina.
“They beat us off the bounce, they beat us in the paint, … which is not good,” Schmidt said. “We want to be the attacking team. We don’t want to be attacked. We just didn’t do a good job containing the ball. … They were getting downhill, they were getting into the paint, and they were either shooting it or they were kicking it. We’ve got to do a better job of getting into the gaps and really being able to guard our yard, keep the ball in front of us.”
Cleaning up the defense is all the more important with a team like Canisius coming to town.
The Golden Griffins have a significant amount of new faces and will be looking to push the pace. But ultimately Schmidt noted it does matter what these teams know about each other. This is a rivalry that goes all the way back to the 1919-20 season, and thus there is an added edge and desire to win this game that can make it a toss-up.
“(Jim Christian) does a great job, they run really good stuff,” Schmidt said. “They got a whole new team, like we do, they push the ball really fast and they execute on offense. They got attackers off the bounce, … they can score, and are a decent defensive team. But it’s a rivalry game. No matter what the records were, if we both had played 10 games and one was undefeated and the other one was winless, it would still be a great game.”
The big hitters for Canisius are set to be Kahlil Singleton, Bryan Ndjonga and Mike Evbagharu. Transfers from Holy Cross, Central Michigan and Central Arkansas, respectively, the trio are flexible. Singleton and Evbagharu will be running the guard spots while Ndjonga will be a big paint presence at 6-9 that Bona will want to keep off the boards.
“Singleton can really shoot the ball, he averages 10 shots and has eight 3s,” Schmidt said. “(Ndjonga) is really long, athletic, and has a lot of great skill. He can shoot the ball from beyond the arc, he can take you off the bounce, he can post, he can play multiple positions. And (Evbagharu) is the same way but stronger. He played the point (against Allegheny) and he made two 3s. They have aggressive attackers, good players that are going to be a handful to guard.”
Right now, the focus is on growing and getting closer as a unit. Like Schmidt said, this team is far from where they can be, but they would like to continue to grow on the back of victories rather than defeats.
St. Bonaventure will tip-off against Canisius at 4 p.m. in the Reilly Center on Nov. 8 with the game being broadcast on ESPN+.
