By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — After its overtime loss to Ohio University, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team was left with a bad taste in its mouth.
Self-inflicted wounds such as turnovers, fouls in critical areas and defensive lapses ultimately led to its demise. It was just the team’s second loss of the non-conference portion of the season, but one that, if they had played a cleaner, more polished game, would have gone their way.
The taste of defeat lingered with the Bonnies for the entire week they had prior to its next game — their final non-con fixture of the season and one that would give them the opportunity to rid themselves of the sour notes.
They would eventually do so, with a 92-81 victory over Le Moyne, but the way they got there was far from the most direct route.
From the immediate looks of things, Bona was well on its way to putting those haunting memories of the loss behind it with a barrage of efficient 3-point shooting that jumpstarted the team. Going 6-for-9 from range to start, it established a 10-point lead in under eight minutes.
But just when things were looking up, the Bonnies fell right back down to Earth.
The offense went ice cold, the defense was porous and allowed the Dolphins to more than make up ground. In just about four minutes of game time, the visitors completely erased the deficit and eventually established a lead of their own through their trusted weapon this season of the 3-pointer.
Entering the game, Le Moyne averaged just under nine made 3s per game. In the first half against Bona, they had seven. That level of execution from range saw its lead balloon to as many as nine points at the half.
The response Bona head coach Mark Schmidt was hoping to see from his team fizzled out in eight minutes and with a five-point deficit at the break, they faced an uphill battle.
“We got to play better. We got to defend better,” Schmidt said. “We can’t allow a team to make seven (3-pointers) in the first half. We can’t allow a team to shoot 47% from the field and 47% from 3s. We just can’t do that. … We got to be aggressive. We got to attack.”
St. Bonaventure’s Daniel Egbuniwe (3) puts up a contested 3-pointer. Egbuniwe went 4-for-7 from deep and scored 14 points for the Bonnies in their win over Le Moyne. (Taylor Komidar)
Visions of the Colgate game came flooding back to Schmidt. Granted, in that affair his side was down double-figures at the break. Still, if they were to come back, Bona would need to completely flip the script.
Luckily, that is exactly what they did.
“It was pleasing, it was like we got some energy on the ball,” Schmidt said. “We were active on the ball screen. The defense was better, it wasn’t perfect, that’s an area that we need to improve on. But we had some presence on the ball, where in the first half, we were just playing off, and almost allowing them to run their offense.”
Things did get a bit worse before they got better though, as Le Moyne ran up their lead to 11 after the first few minutes of the second half. It wasn’t until the entrance of Daniel Egbuniwe after halftime that the Bonnies found a vein of success.
With nine quick points, all coming from range, Egbuniwe sparked what would go on to be a 23-4 scoring run for the hosts.
“He was the difference,” Schmidt said. “He’s capable of doing that. He’s done it in the past this year. We needed some energy off the bench and I thought Daniel did a heck of a job.”
The park plug role may be something Egbuniwe has fallen into, but as he noted, it is not like he is coming off the bench and demanding the ball each possession. He’ll put his best effort out on the floor and if it just so happens he gets hot, he’ll keep it going.
“Coach Schmidt, he always says, ‘every person might have their day, whose day is it gonna be off the bench?’” Egbuniwe said. “And it could have been my day, it could have been anybody else’s day. I just try to play the game the right way. My teammates found me, and I just made some shots.”
Egbuniwe contributed a hefty 14-point performance, but he was just one of six Bonnies to have finished with double figures. Cayden Charles had himself a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double, Dasonte Bowen scored 15 points, his third consecutive game with at least that many — granted it is the 4-0 assist-to-turnover ratio that Schmidt admired more, Darryl ‘Buddy’ Simmons II netted 12 points and Joe Grahovac chipped in 11 points and three blocks.
St. Bonaventure’s Cayden Charles (24) flies to the rim for the layup. Charles recorded a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double for the Bonnies in their win. (Taylor Komidar)
But all of the Bona scorers were once again led by the ever-present Frank Mitchell, who tallied 21 points, falling just short of his seventh consecutive double-double with nine rebounds.
Mitchell went back and forth with Le Moyne’s Shilo Jackson, who scored a game-high 25 points for the Dolphins, a battle that has roots all the way back to when the two were roommates at Vincennes University playing JUCO ball.
“Me and Shilo go way back,” Mitchell said. “My first basketball experience was with Shilo, so we’ve known each other for the last five years. So, seeing him at this level and seeing him work and seeing him give me a little run for my money, was good. I truly love that kid, and it was great to go against him.”
Not all that far behind Jackson was Deng Garang, who finished with 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting. Jakai Sanders, to go along with his 10-point afternoon, set a new program record for assists in a game for Le Moyne with 16 to just one turnover.
“Give Le Moyne credit, they played really well and we knew it was going to be a game coming in,” Schmidt said. “I thought we came out a little soft, … but I thought the second half we responded. … We took care of the ball, which has been a problem the last three games. But we’ve got to play 40 minutes. Against the teams we are about to play, starting with VCU, if you play a half, it’s not going to be enough. We got to get better. But it’s a great Christmas present. Going home 11-2 in the non-conference says a lot about our team and our players.”
The non-conference portion of the season for the Bonnies is now officially complete and while it was chocked full of competitive affairs and tests, the most important games of the season are waiting just on the other side of the holiday break — and perhaps one of the biggest games of the entire season is first on the docket.
St. Bonaventure will open its Atlantic 10 account for the season on the road against VCU at 2 p.m. on Dec. 31.
