By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — Through 30 minutes the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team looked renewed.
Fresh off an important rivalry win over Duquesne, just its second victory in conference play, Bona was taking it to the second-place team in the Atlantic 10, George Mason.
Four of its starters, Frank Mitchell, Dasonte Bowen, Cayden Charles and Darryl ‘Buddy’ Simmons II were playing some of the best basketball they have played as a unit all season long. Each contributed heavily in establishing and maintaining a double-figure lead over the 19-2 Patriots for a grand portion of the affair.
But the problem, and the reason the Bonnies entered the game just 2-6 in conference play, does not lie within the first 30 minutes of action — it is in the home stretch.
Since A10 play began, it’s been difficult for Bona to get results over the line. But, their team being up by 14 points with just over eight minutes left had a packed Reilly Center believing they might see the end of that theme.
Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed as the offense dried up, and missed chances at the free throw line saw the hosts suffer a 77-73 defeat as George Mason completed the comeback.
“It was a great game, disappointing how it ended,” Bona head coach Mark Schmidt said. “We’ve lost six games now in the last five minutes. I thought we played well, we had a great crowd and I don’t think we could have played any harder. I just thought we made some mistakes and, this season, every time we’ve made a mistake, they’ve made us pay. … We’re right there, but we’re just not executing. … I can’t fault the effort. We’re playing hard, we just miss a block out, we foul, we don’t execute at the end, certain stuff that we try to go over and practice. Give George Mason credit, they made some shots, we missed some foul shots, and we just didn’t finish.”
Schmidt gave his players credit for their effort, noting they did a solid job of putting George Mason under significant pressure. But he also admitted that there come times where they just simply fall apart. Defensively, in particular.
“We were active, I thought we played hard the whole game,” Schmidt said. “They’re a team that only turns the ball over eight or nine times a game. I thought we did a good job, we just break down at certain points. We don’t have a lot of length, and other than Andrew, we don’t have a shot blocker or a rim protector. So, when teams get into the paint, it’s really hard for us to wall up and get stops. … We’re having a hard time keeping strong, athletic guards in front of us. We lost the paint 46-32 and 30 of those 46 points were from the guards just driving at us. That’s an area that we have to improve on.”
One of the keys Schmidt had going into this matchup was getting out in transition. Against Duquesne last time out, Simmons was able to take over, scoring 31 points. And according to Schmidt, the reason he was able to hit so many shots was because they pushed the ball and found Simmons before the defense had a chance to set up and stick a big body on him.
But when they can’t get out on the break, that is when he noted they have to go inside to Mitchell. But when Mitchell is sealed off too, that is when Bona finds itself in trouble.
“We try to go inside to Frank, that’s how we try to get easy baskets. It’s really hard for us to separate on the perimeter and create some space,” Schmidt said. “We’re not a great half-court offensive team, other than throwing the ball inside. When we’re at our best, we have to get it up and down, from an offensive standpoint. From a defensive standpoint, (we have to) try to keep it five-on-five. We’re not creating enough in the open court so Buddy can get some distance and some space. At times we’ve done it, but for the most part, we haven’t.”
That lack of space led to Schmidt continuously feeding Mitchell late in the game. Multiple times he had opportunities to score, but the lid that had seemingly been on the rim kept him out. However, he was fouled numerous times.
Mitchell is currently having his best free throw shooting season over his last three years. Still, he is shooting just 65.8% from the stripe. And with the game on the line, the Patriots played ‘Hack-a-Frank’ — a gamble that paid off as his struggles at the line left the door open for the visitors’ comeback.
But Schmidt is not blaming Mitchell. According to him, Mitchell being the one at the line at the end of the game is a circumstance of not being able to create space for guards to drive and get to the basket.
“When teams get into us, it’s hard for us to create space,” Schmidt said. “So, we got to go inside and try to drive it. We’re not the biggest team. In the past, our whole thing was our guards … (would) attack, and then you’re not getting foul shots from the big guys, you’re getting foul shots from the guards. This year we’re not as good at that. Not that we can’t improve on that, but we got to get the ball inside to Frank. Frank had 25 (points) and six (rebounds), you can’t blame him. We just got to go back and hopefully get better.”
St. Bonaventure’s Darryl ‘Buddy’ Simmons II (8) pulls up for a shot against George Mason. Simmons scored 10 points for the Bonnies in their loss to the Patriots. (Hunter O. Lyle)
For Schmidt, it just feels like his team can’t catch a break.
Every single mistake they make is getting punished to the fullest extent by their opponents.
That being said, he noted they shouldn’t be making the mistakes they are in the first place.
“We screw up a switch and they make a 3, rather than, when you have really good seasons, you screw it up, but they miss,” Schmidt said. “It just seems like we’re bitten a little bit. But some of that elementary stuff, switching a ball screen or blocking out, those things have to be done. You’re not going to do it 100% of the time, but you got to do it 75% of the time.”
The loss was gut-wrenching, but Schmidt has not lost hope.
After all, Mitchell did score a game-high 25 points. Bowen, Simmons and Charles scored 14, 13 and 10 points, respectively as well. To Schmidt, the team being in these games late means that they are just a few possessions away from their conference record being on the plus side of the .500 line.
It’s just going to take work.
“We’re good enough,” Schmidt said. “We’ve led in five or six games. We just got to learn to finish. We have character guys. We don’t have a lot of players, but I think we have enough players that we can be competitive and not have games like Saint Louis. But every game that we play, it gives you hope that we have enough to be able to pull out some of these wins.”
St. Bonaventure will look to get back in the win column on Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. at Dayton.
