By Kyle Zamiara
Sports Editor
On Nov. 11, 2011, the men’s basketball team embarked on its most anticipated season in the last decade. The Bonnies had an All-America candidate, three senior starters, and their first winning season since 2002-03 behind them.
Friday, the Bonnies’ season ended in Nashville, Tenn. at the NCAA Tournament. Third-seeded Florida State, came back to win a game the Bonnies led most of the way, 66-63.
The game left #bonanation heartbroken, but this team (20-12) came a long way after a shaky start to the season.
Coach Mark Schmidt said his team accomplished something most people couldn’t imagine after the start to this season.
“Whenever you lose, you’re disappointed,” Schmidt said. “When we lost our sixth man (Marquise Simmons) one minute into the first game and lost our starting two man (Michael Davenport), who is going to be a thousand-point scorer, in our seventh game, people had us dead. We fought. Our guys came back.
“Our young guys really developed. When we left two days ago and we had the streets lined there wasn’t a better feeling in the world.”
The Bonnies had a 7-0 run to start the game and took a 34-28 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Brown and White never trailed in the game until the 5:18 mark in the second half, when Florida State’s Ian Miller hit a three-pointer to put the Seminoles up 55-52.
A 15-2 run from the Seminoles put them up 60-52 with 2:46 left. The Bonnies used a layup from junior swingmanDemitrius Conger and a three-pointer from senior forward Andrew Nicholson to pull within three, but Miller nailed another three to increase the Seminoles lead back to six, 63-57.
A nice feed to Conger in the corner for three from Nicholson brought the Bonnies back with three again.
Conger fouled Florida State guard Luke Loucks after the inbound with 37 seconds left. Loucks hit both free throws for a 65-60 FSU advantage.
Needing a score, Conger hit another 3-pointer to bring the margin to two, 65-63, with 27 seconds left.
Junior guard/forward Chris Johnson fouled Florida State’s Deividas Dulkys, putting the senior at the line for a one and one. Dulkys missed the first shot, but forward Okaro White made a tremendous offensive rebound, swatting the ball back to his teammates, forcing the Bonnies to foul again.
Loucks hit one of two at the line giving the Bonnies a chance to tie down three with 22 seconds left.
Redshirt senior Da’Quan Cook missed his first try for a deuce andWhite blocked the next after Cook got his own rebound to seal the win for the Atlantic Coast Conference champions.
Nicholson played his final game as a Bonnie, finishing with 20 points, hitting a career-high four three-pointers.
Schmidt praised his All-America candidate for taking a shot with him and reviving the program.
“He’s everything to me,” Schmidt said. “He’s everything to this university. He’s going to go down as one of the greatest (alumni) of this university.
“He brought us back. He brought us back from the ashes. And without this guy next to me, I’m not sitting up here. We are not where we are. The program is back because of Andrew Nicholson. I said it before, he may not be as good as Bob Lanier, but he is our Bob Lanier.”
The Bonnies held ACC Tournament MVP Michael Snaer to no points after he averaged 18 a game in the tournament.
Conger said the NCAA Tournament gave him a great experience, and he’s glad the Bonnies did what they set out to do.
“Even though we wanted to win the game really badly, just the fact that we made it to the NCAA Tournament and a lot of teams don’t get to do that,” Conger said. “It’s going to be a very good memory.”
Schmidt also put into perspective how much the fan base has meant to the team this season.
“We have the best fans in the world,” Schmidt said. “They’re loyal. They’ve been with us when I took over five years ago, we didn’t have much going on. Everybody was really supportive. You go into the grocery store and everybody is talking about the team, and it’s just – looking at them, people coming down, driving down 12 hours, it’s a special thing. It’s a special place.
“This is a new beginning for Bonaventure and the program at the university.”
