By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Assignment Editor
History seemed to be repeating itself for the Bonnies (12-13, 5-7), and not in a good way. After losing consecutive games in overtime, the Brown and White watched as their 10-point second-half lead over Massachusetts (16-9, 6-6) evaporated in less than three minutes Wednesday night.
Then the offensive fireworks began. The teams exploded for more than 60 points apiece in the second half as the Bonnies set a season-high for points in a 99-94 win over the Minutemen.
Senior Eric Mosley led the charge with a career-high 39 points on 12-18 shooting including 5-8 from three-point land. The point total was the most for a Bonnie in a regulation game since 2002 and the most-ever against an Atlantic 10 foe. Mosley more than doubled his career high in points the last four games.
Coach Mark Schmidt credits this to his improvement on defense.
“Eric’s defense has really improved over the last few games, which has allowed him to stay on the floor longer,” Schmidt said. “Because of that, he’s been able to get more opportunities. I’m no dummy, I know that when someone’s shooting the ball the way he is, then I can give him a little bit more. And the efforts there — that’s what I’m most happy about.”
While the average Bona fan may have been in awe of Mosley’s performance, he said he was not surprised.
“I feel like every time I shoot the ball, it’s going to go in,” Mosley said. “If I feel like it’s not going to go in, I’m not going to shoot it.”
Mosley was not alone in his offensive outburst. Senior swingman Chris Johnson shot 7-15 from the field, good for 22 points in addition to grabbing seven boards. Conger scored nine of his 13 points in the second half and grabbed 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
“Chris did a great job offensively and defensively,” Schmidt said. “Then Demitrius had a double-double. It was a great team game but we couldn’t have done it without these two guys.”
Foul shots were another area the Bonnies excelled in Wednesday night. The Brown and White hit 32-33 from the line in the contest.
“You know we tell the guys all the time that foul shots are a quarter of our points,” Schmidt said. “Today they were one-third. We’re number one in the league in foul shooting; we’ve got good foul shooters. Hopefully that continues because tonight we won because we out-scored them by 15 from the foul line.”
The Bonnies jumped out to a lead early in the first half and didn’t slow down, leading by as much as 12 at one point. They went into the half with a seven-point lead and increased that to 10 points when a Mosley three-pointer gave them a 50-40 lead. The Minutemen did not lie down, however. They fought back to take a 57-56 lead with 12:43 remaining and the teams battled, within a few possessions of each other for the rest of the contest.
“I couldn’t be more proud, our guys played very well,” Schmidt said. “We got down in the second half but we didn’t cave in, we found a way. That’s what you need to do. They’re a very good team, they’re long and athletic. (Junior guard) Chaz Williams is incredible but somehow we scored more points than them.”
With the win Wednesday, the Bonnies set themselves up to control their own destiny in relation to qualify for the A-10 tournament. The team has four games remaining in the season. They’ll take on bottom-feeders Fordham and Duquesne, middle-of-the-pack Charlotte and Dayton, with whom they’re currently fighting for the final qualifying spot.
“We just needed to learn to find a way to win and that’s what we did,” Schmidt said. “We have four games left and that’s what we need to do. Tonight, we needed to get a win over Massachusetts and we did that.”
