By Jonathan Sawyer
Sports Associate Editor
PITTSBURGH – The St. Bonaventure Bonnies defeated the Duquesne Dukes 71-64 on Wednesday. The Bonnies picked up a road victory after having to lock down on defense.
Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt said when the ball is not falling through the net, the team needs to lock in on the defensive end.
“We change defenses, just try to mix things up and try to keep the opponent off balance. I thought our guys were active in it. When our offense isn’t going well we have to be able to play defense,” Schmidt said.
The first half ended with the Bonnies sending the Dukes to the line 19 times. The Bonnies did a good job getting their hands in the passing lanes by forcing 15 Duquesne turnovers and capitalizing with 18 points off them. The Dukes got into the bonus just six minutes into the game, and they would eventually finish 62 percent (21-34) from the line.
Getting the ball inside seemed to be one of the factors the Bonnies kept this game close with 22 points in the paint in the first half.
The Bonnies came out in the second half on an 8-0 run that, in Schmidt’s mind, won the game for them. After the Bonnies took the lead in the first five minutes of the second half, they would never lose the lead again.
“We won the game defensively and in the first four minutes of the second half,” Schmidt said.
Junior guard Matt Mobley led the charge with six out of the Bonnies first eight points. He would eventually go on to score a team high 22 points.
“We feel like we should be able to do it every game, but we just wanted to come out because any game on the road in the A-10 is going to be tough, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” Mobley said. “We knew we had to defend in order to get the win, and we just came collectively and decided to defend.”
An unusual face in the lineup, freshman forward Amadi Ikpeze, played 18 minutes off the bench. In that short span of time, he was able to put up eight points and grab three rebounds.
“Amadi [Ikpeze] came up big for us,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt went on to talk about his young center.
“He’s physical, he’s coming along, he’s been doing well on the scout team and I tell the guys all the time if you practice well your going to get a shot and other guys weren’t doing it he came in physically,” Schmidt said.
The Bonnies shot one for 13 (7.7 percent) from beyond the arc, which makes it the Bonnies fewest threes in a game this season.
“One of the things is try to take the ball to the basket and when you shoot one for 13, you better be able to take the ball to the basket,” Schmidt said. “I thought Matt had one of the best finishes he had all year, when he took it strong and finished above the rim. He needs to do that more often, but taking the ball to the basket is what we try to do.”
Mobley talked about the team just not getting the ball to go down from beyond the arc.
“You have to play in the flow of the game, if your shots aren’t falling, you have to find different ways to get the ball in the basket. Coach told me to drive it more [in the] second half,” Mobley said. “I just tried to do that. We were driving, I just got layups, so I just kept going to the basket.”
More than half of the Bonnies points were inside the paint, with 38 out of the total 71 points.
Junior guard Jaylen Adams, who was the only player to hit a three for the Bonnies, dropped 16 points and got his hand in the passing lanes to end up with six steals. Fellow junior guard Idris Taqqee added 12 points and eight rebounds.
Both the Bonnies (16) and the Dukes (20) combined for a total 36 turnovers in the game. The Bonnies would capitalize with 23 points off turnovers. Ikpeze and freshman forward/center Josh Ayeni would both foul out of the game.
The Bonnies will head back home on Saturday as they take on the VCU Rams. The last time the Rams visited the Reilly Center, Marcus Posley sent the ranked Rams homes with a game winning lay up.
The game is set to tip-ff at 4 p.m.
sawyerjp15@bonaventure.edu
