By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Assignment Editor
A year after ascending to the top of the Atlantic 10 mountain, the Bonnies (14-15, 7-9) have fallen to a valley of a basketball-free postseason in a manner that seemed nearly impossible even while it was happening.
Entering Saturday, the Bonnies needed either a win over Fordham (7-24, 3-13) or a loss by Charlotte (20-10, 8-8) or George Washington (13-16, 7-9) who had combined to lose 12 of their previous 14 games. In fact, if all the pieces fell just right, the Bonnies had a chance to move all the way up to seventh place.
Then Saturday happened.
In the afternoon, George Washington defeated Dayton in overtime, thrusting themselves back into the playoff picture. This ensured the matchup against Fordham would have increased importance, as the Bonnies needed a victory to avoid relying on St. Joe’s to defeat Charlotte later that night.
Fordham sat in 15th place, having won only six games the entire season. In fact, the Rams hadn’t won an A-10 game on the road since 2009. However, as every A-10 coach who’s done a press conference has re-iterated — anyone can beat anyone.
The Bonnies fell to Fordham, 76-72, on senior day, dropping them to below .500 on the season.
Coach Mark Schmidt denied the loss had anything to do with the senior day activities and instead blamed it on the team’s failure to adhere to two of the three parts of his “trifecta.”
“We didn’t defend and we didn’t rebound,” Schmidt said. “If you don’t do those two things, you’re going to lose, especially in the Atlantic 10. It doesn’t matter if it’s senior day or whatever, you have to play well.”
Schmidt’s claims are not unfounded. The Bonnies allowed Fordham their highest point total in exactly two months and were out-rebounded 35-24, including 19-6 in the second half. Schmidt does not chalk the lopsided total up to a lack of effort, however.
“Defense is not all effort,” Schmidt said. “It’s positioning, it’s understanding what they’re doing, it’s reading plays, it’s contesting shots. At times we didn’t play our hardest, but most of the time we broke down from an x’s and o’s standpoint.”
Senior Chris Gaston dominated the Bonnies down low in his final college game, grabbing nine boards and chipping in for 22 points on 10-14 shooting. The Brown and White also had trouble with freshman guard Mandell Thomas, who scored 22 points on 9-18 from the field.
“(Mandell) played great,” Schmidt said. “He played well, shot the ball well. He took 18 shots, but he hit the big one at the end.”
In their final game as Bonnies, Demetrius Conger, Eric Mosley, Chris Johnson and Michael Davenport were all in the starting line-up. Both Conger and Mosley scored 17, as did sophomore center Youssou Ndoye.
The career-high total didn’t soften the blow for the Dakar, Senegal native.
“It’s really difficult,” Ndoye said. “We didn’t rise to the occasion; we just came in thinking the other team wouldn’t show up. We need to show up every night.”
A few hours after the buzzer sounded in the Reilly Center, Charlotte ensured it would be the final sound the Bonnies would hear this season as they defeated St. Joe’s, 52-40. The win vaulted the 49ers into the postseason tournament and the Bonnies into a summer of lamenting close calls and lost opportunity.
