By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
We’re five games into conference play, and, with a 2-3 record, the team’s play has fostered a strange combination of hope and despair.
Hope, because the team has played some of the Atlantic 10’s best competition so well. The team held halftime leads against #16 UMass and George Washington while they played #24 St. Louis close the entire game. The Bonnies then handed La Salle its first conference los Wednesday.
Despair, because the team is still only 2-3 in Atlantic 10 play, and it’s not as if the schedule is about to get any easier. There aren’t many doormats to mix in with the nationally competitive teams. Nearly every team in the 13-member conference will provide a tough matchup in some way. (See: last year’s season finale against Fordham).
The next two matchups will provide uniquely different challenges for the Bonnies. First the team will travel to Pittsburgh to take on Duquesne Saturday. The Dukes (8-8, 1-3) have also struggled against the A-10’s toughest competition.
While they haven’t played the teams quite as close as the Bonnies have (their three losses have come by an average of more than 14 points per game), the team knows how tough of a matchup a desperate team can be.
“Every team is going to be a good team,” junior guard Andell Cumberbatch said. “Every team is going to be trying to win. So, that’s just going to be harder because they’re trying to get to the same spot we are. So is everybody else so every game is going to be a hard game”
St. Bonaventure Head Coach Mark Schmidt has been around the Atlantic 10 long enough to know that there’s no such thing as an easy conference game.
“They’re all tough,” Schmidt said. “No matter who you’re playing in our league, if you don’t play well, you’re going to lose. Just like when we go to UMass, and we’re picked to finish 12th in the A-10, and they’re 16th in the country. We should have won the game. Our league has so much parity that if you don’t play well or you aren’t ready to play, you could lose no matter who you’re playing.”
His teams have been on both sides of this. In 2011, Duquesne came to the Reilly Center sitting atop the Atlantic 10 with a perfect 8-0 record. The 3-5 Bonnies knocked off the Dukes with a buzzer-beater by then- junior Michael Davenport.
Last season, the Bonnies needed only a home win over 15th place Fordham to advance to the A-10 postseason tournament. The Bonnies did not succeed as they allowed the Rams to win their first conference road game in four seasons.
Schmidt knows either of these outcomes are possible every time two A-10 teams take the floor. Which is good news for the Bonnies, as they’ll take on UMass again Wednesday.
The Minutemen are ranked 13 in the country this week and will likely still be ranked in the top 20 come Wednesday.
The team has proven its ability to play with UMass. According to Schmidt, just needs to close better in order to pull off an upset.
“We’ve got to make that big shot, that big stop,” Schmidt said. “We didn’t do that against UMass, we didn’t do that against St. Louis and we didn’t do that against George Washington. Every game’s going to go down to the last two or three possessions. And we have to make those plays. In the three losses, the other team has made them.”
Schmidt maintains the close games against superior opponents have given the team confidence. The Bonnies’ continued ability to stay with more talented and highly-touted teams seems to back up his words as does finally pulling through with a win Wednesday. The only thing that remains to be seen is whether or not the team will be able to consistently put away quality competition.
Cumberbatch is confident the Bonnies can do this.
“We just have to execute, not turn the ball over, stay poised and stick together as a team.”
nigreltn11@bonaventure.edu
