By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Assignment Editor
Another week of basketball games, another week where poor perimeter defense hampered the Bonnies’ (10-11, 3-5) chances for victory.
After holding on for a 68-60 home victory over last-place Duquesne (7-15, 0-8), the Bonnies were dismantled by No. 14 Butler (19-4, 6-2) on the road. The team was without junior guard Matthew Wright for both contests due to a foot injury.
The Bulldogs had success shooting 3-pointers throughout the game which allowed them to pull away from the Bonnies just before halftime. They shot 42.3 percent (11-26) from beyond the arc while allowing SBU just four triples in the contest. The Bulldog onslaught was led by senior guard Rotnei Clarke who scored 17 points, dished five assists and grabbed five rebounds.
The Bonnies did have a bright spot, however, in senior swingman Demitrius Conger who led all scorers with 18 points.
The Brown and White seemed to have figured out their perimeter issues in the first five Atlantic 10 games but have allowed at least 40 percent 3-point shooting in each of the last three contests. Tighter perimeter defense may not have made a difference against a national powerhouse like Butler, but it could be huge in determining whether or not the Bonnies play in the Barclays Center in March.
Perhaps the issue is the absence of Wright, who is probable for Saturday’s game at Rhode Island. Even so, the Bonnies must make improvements to their perimeter defense before it’s too late. The A-10 is too competitive of a conference to consistently win in while allowing opponents to shoot 40 percent from three-point range.
Perimeter defense was one of the very few issues the Bonnies faced against the Dukes Saturday. The Brown and White were unable to pull away from winless Duquesne due to the Dukes’ 3-point accuracy. The Dukes hit 11-24 (45.6 percent) from beyond the arc.
The Bonnies were even more accurate from deep (54.5 percent) and prevented the Dukes from getting anything going in the paint. However, the biggest factor in the Bonnies’ favor was the spark received from sophomore guard Jordan Gathers. The Los Angeles native hadn’t been receiving much playing time in recent games but was forced to start because of Wright’s injury. He stepped in and hit 5-of-5 shots and finished with 13 points.
“With Matt being out, I needed to step up,” Gathers said. “I was just able to get open, my teammates found me and I was able to make shots. Once you hit your first shot, the floor starts to open up and the basket starts to get bigger.”
Gathers acknowledged that his playing time has varied recently, but said the lack of recent minutes didn’t affect his game.
“We go hard in practice every day, we treat it like a game,” Gathers said. “I just had to go in and be focused and everything was fine. I just felt comfortable shooting it out there today.”
Gathers played just 20 minutes and scored only four points at Butler. However, with Wright’s fate unknown and senior Eric Mosley’s recent struggles, Gathers has earned more playing time. He’s shined in limited minutes and has the team’s best assist-to-turnover ratio (2-1). As the team’s youngest and sometimes most efficient guard, Gathers should see more action soon.
The Bonnies are now 3-5 in conference play with the toughest part of the schedule out of the way. However, the A-10 is one of the NCAA’s deepest and most competitive conferences. No game is an easy game and the Bonnies need to play the way they did in Philadelphia a few weeks ago if they want to ensure a trip to Brooklyn come March.
