By Jonathan Sawyer
Sports Editor
Senior forward Denzel Gregg picked up his fifth double-double of the season with 24 points and 12 rebounds in a 10-point St. Bonaventure University men’s basketball team victory over the George Mason Patriots. The win put the Bonnies at 2-1 in conference play.
Gregg attacked the basket early, scoring his first eight points inside the paint. The Bonnies were in need of a career night out of Gregg, with junior guard Jaylen Adams leaving the game with 12:59 left to go in the game with an apparent sprained ankle.
Head coach of the Patriots, Dave Paulsen, talked about how the Bonnies stepped up after the loss Tuesday night against Dayton and the loss of Adams.
“I think a mark of a good team is how they respond when they have lost a game. A mark of a good team is what they do when one of their best players goes down with an ankle injury and other guys stepped up,” Paulsen said.
Paulsen said their main focus was Adams (7 points) and junior guard Matt Mobley (8 points), who were held to their season low in scoring, and that Gregg was a recipient of the benefits of their pressure on those two guards.
“I thought he was terrific tonight. He does what he is supposed to do for his team and that’s a mark of a really good player,” Paulsen said. “As a coach you love to see a guy who came and progressively got better every year in terms of his minutes per game, points per game. He was a tough matchup because he found ways to slither behind after he would set a ball screen.”
Gregg averaged 3.7 points per game (ppg) and 3.2 rebounds per game (rpg) his first season as a Bonnie, 9.3 ppg and 5.3 rpg his second season, and this season is averaging 13.3 ppg and 7.8 rpg.
“I thought Denzel was terrific, he was aggressive. When he goes to offensive glass, that’s when you know he’s engaged,” Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt said about his senior forward getting a career high 24 points.
When Adams left the game, sophomore guard Nelson Kaputo, who missed the first nine games of the season due to academic issues, came in off the bench and gave the Bonnies 13 points in 20 minutes played.
“It was good to know that other guys stepped up. Denzel made some big shots, Idris and Nelson hit some big threes, but it’s good. We always say we are not a one man show, you have to have those role guys step up and make contributions,” Schmidt said.
“It was definitely a confidence booster for me, but I was just trying to step in and fill the void that Jay went down and our team needed guys to step up, play some defense, and I was just trying to do anything to help my team win,” Kaputo said on coming off the bench and helping his team to the victory.
Paulsen called Kaputo the “X factor for them,” saying he was hitting “big, timely baskets.”
Kaputo said he is going to continue to work hard and “going to contribute to the team, whatever they need me to do, whatever coach sees me fit in the offense or defense or whatever he needs to go out there and do.”
Even though Adams and Mobley combined for 15 points, a season low, they both combined for 10 assists in helping other teammates get involved. Junior guard Idris Taqqee registered a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
“Guys coming off the bench and giving us a lift, that is important. Even LaDarien didn’t have numbers but gets five rebounds,” Schmidt said on his role players. “Those, what we call role guys, are really important to our successful team.”
Those key role players will be needed as the Bonnies will be back in action Wednesday Jan. 11 as they travel to Richmond to take on the Spiders at 7 p.m.
