Men’s basketball wins second in a row
By Nick Konotopskyj
Sports Editor
The last time the St. Bonaventure Bonnies were in the mix for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament, the Buffalo Bills were a playoff team. This is uncharted waters for Coach Mark Schmidt, who is in his ninth season at Bonaventure.
The team played its last home game in front of the student section Wednesday night, and it delivered with an 80 -76 victory over the Duquesne Dukes in the Reilly Center.
The Bonnies now move to 19-7 (11-4 in the A10) while Duquesne falls to 15-13 (5-10 in the A10). Sophomore guard Jaylen Adams led the way with 24 points for the Bonnies while senior guard Micah Mason led the Dukes with 16 points.
Even though Bonaventure was behind for much of the game, Schmidt said he gave credit to his team for hanging tough and battling through to pull out the victory.
“I thought we showed some great character,” Schmidt said. “When we got down by nine, our guys didn’t panic. Our guys showed some toughness in the second half when we came back.”
Adams had 18 of his 24 points in the second half and even though he struggled early in the game, the sophomore guard led the Brown and White to a home win.
“I think I played a little harder in the second half,” Adams said. “I let my defense rub off on my offense and as a team, I believe we picked up our intensity in the second half.”
Duquesne out rebounded the Bonnies by 11 in the game, but Bonaventure only committed seven turnovers on the night and made eight more free throws than the Dukes. Adams made multiple free throws down the stretch to ice the game away in the final minute.
On Saturday, the Bonnies picked up a road win against the 15th ranked Dayton Flyers 79-72. Adams finished with a career high 31 points to lead the Brown and White. The Flyers were led by junior guard Charles Cooke with 22 points.
After losing last Wednesday Feb. 25 to the last place La Salle Explorers, the Bonnies are now in a position to play some basketball deep into the month of March.
ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has weekly predictions for who will be in the tournament field of 68 and at the moment, Lunardi has the Bonnies as one of the “First Four Out.” Bonaventure hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since the 2011-12 season, and that team was never in the “bubble” discussion.
Schmidt said his team has been able to close games out in pressure situations.
“The more you are in a situation and the more success you have in those situations, then the more confident and comfortable you are going to be when it comes up again,” Schmidt said.
Bonaventure will face some of those situations again when it faces its final true home game of the regular season on Saturday afternoon in the Reilly Center against the University of Massachusetts Minutemen at 4 p.m. The team will then close out the regular season with a neutral site game next Wednesday, Mar. 2 in Rochester against the Saint Joseph’s Hawks and then finally at the Saint Louis Billikens Saturday, Mar. 5 at 8 p.m.
konotonr12@bonaventure.edu
