By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Assignment Editor
The men’s basketball team (9-10, 2-4) failed to complete what would have been their first three-game win streak of the season Saturday when they fell to the Saint Louis Billikens (14-5, 3-2) in front of an Alumni Weekend crowd in the Reilly Center.
The Billikens jumped out to a 7-0 lead just two minutes into the game and never trailed en route to a 67-57 victory. Junior forward Dwayne Evans led the effort with 18 points and eight rebounds. Senior Cody Ellis added 10 points and four steals.
The Bonnies turned the ball over 19 times, which lead to 27 points for Saint Louis.
“It was down to six at one point and we had two or three turnovers in a row,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt said. “Against a good defensive team like Saint Louis, you can’t do that. They got 27 points off of our turnovers.
After falling behind early, the Bonnies fought back to make it a two-possession game multiple times but were unable to tie the game at any point. They held the Billikens to 29 points on 40 percent shooting in the second half but allowed Saint Louis to score 13 points in foul shots.
“When you have a chance to cut in to the lead against a good team like Saint Louis, you have to do it,” Schmidt said. “When it’s a one-possession game you can’t turn it over.”
The Bonnies’ final hope at a comeback was destroyed when Ellis stripped the ball away from senior Demitrius Conger on consecutive possessions in the final minutes to turn a seven-point deficit for the Bonnies into an 11-point lead for the Billikens.
“(Ellis) really anticipated it well,” Saint Louis coach Jim Crews said. “He had active hands and that’s good. When the game gets close at the end, sometimes you get tentative defensively. I don’t think our kids did that.”
Perimeter defense also helped secure the win for Saint Louis. Junior Matt Wright, who left with a foot injury, and senior Eric Mosley struggled to get open looks the entire game and finished with just three points between them. As a team, the Bonnies shot just 36.2 percent (17-47) from the field and 12.5 percent (2-16) beyond the 3-point line.
“We knew going in when they play well they can really defend,” Schmidt said. “They did a great job forcing us into contested shots and they got 14 steals, which tells you how good they were.”
Junior Charlon Kloof was the lone bright spot among the guards. He finished with 11 points after scoring only six in the previous four games. He believes Saint Louis’s defensive success was a result of a poor effort by the Bonnies.
“I think it was really more us not executing,” Kloof said. “I think the coaching staff tried to prepare us for the pressure but we didn’t go out and execute.”
Kloof had one of his best offensive games of the season Saturday. He was able to drive, get to the rim and contributed to only one of his team’s 19 turnovers.
“I saw we started a little slow compared to the last two games,” Kloof said. “I just always try to do whatever my team needs. This time we needed a spark.”
The loss dropped St. Bonaventure to 14th in the Atlantic 10 Conference. However, they’re within a game and a half of seventh place with last-place Duquesne coming to town Saturday. The last five games have shown, if nothing else, the Bonnies are a tough out, especially at home.
“We knew the Bonnies would come back and keep punching,” Crew said. “They did, they kept punching. They’re competitive kids.”
