By Jonathan Sawyer
Sports Associate Editor
The St. Bonaventure Bonnies men’s basketball (18-10, 10-6) snuck out a win after holding a 15-point lead in the second half against the Duquesne Dukes (10-19, 3-13), 80-77.
“It wasn’t our best performance, by far. But we found a way to win. I thought we came out really sluggish,” Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt said about his teams performance.
At the under eight media timeout, the Bonnies looked like they were going to take control until the end of the game. Between the under eight timeout and the under four minute timeout, the teams combined for eight fouls.
The Dukes cut the lead to seven with 3:55 left in the game. The lead continued to dwindle for the Bonnies, as with 1:09 left in regulation freshman guard Mike Lewis II sunk two free throws to tie the game at 74.
After junior guard Idris Taqqee went to the line and made one of two to put the Bonnies up one, senior forward Denzel Gregg blocked Lewis II as he was trying to go up for the lay up. Junior guard Matt Mobley would go to the line for the Bonnies the rest of the game to seal the win.
The Bonnies were down as much as 12 in the first half to the Dukes, but fought back to bring it within three.
“Give Duquesne credit, I think they hit their first five threes,” Schmidt said. “I think we got it back a little bit as the half went on and we were lucky to be down by three at halftime.”
It was in the hands of Mobley to start the second half, as he scored the Bonnies first 12 points to regain the lead at 50-45. The team would eventually outscore the Dukes in the first eight minutes of the second half, 23-9.
“[I] just got a couple of easy layups, gave me a little momentum, [I] knocked down a three and then I just kept shooting,” Mobley said. “Seeing the ball go in, that always helps me. So those free throws just gave me confidence, got a steal, got an easy layup and just kept shooting.”
Mobley finished the game with a team high 20 points, grabbed five rebounds and handed out three assists. He talked about the differences between the halves.
“We knew we had to strap up, so if they were going to continue to shoot threes at a high rate, we were going to lose,” he said. “We just knew we needed to start guarding the three-point line.”
The Dukes knocked down eight three-point shots in the first half, and the Bonnies held them to only one in the second.
Schmidt said the game of basketball is a game of a momentum that was passed back and forth between the teams.
“We had it for a while and then we lost it, and they gained it, and it’s hard to get it back,” Schmidt said “Thank goodness we were playing at home in front of a great crowd that kept us in it.”
Dukes head coach Jim Ferry said the start of the second hurt his team.
“Those three or four turnovers in a row really changed the game and then we were fighting uphill, which is really hard to do against such a talented combination of those two guards, which I thought we did a really good job on. Mobley got free a couple of times,” he said.
Ferry was proud of his teams’ effort of not giving up.
“I give my kids credit for hanging in and fighting back,” he said. “This is probably the toughest place in our conference to play with the crowd. I think our kids did a good job.”
The Bonnies (27) and the Dukes (29) combined for 56 fouls in the game, but Gregg felt that had nothing to do with how the flow of the game went.
“I don’t really think that’s it. I don’t know what it is, it’s just something we have to fix, but I don’t think it has to do with the fouls, Gregg said. “I think it’s just our play. We have to play better, more consistently throughout the game. I don’t know what it is, we just have to figure it out.”
Gregg finished the game with a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds. He also added four blocks to his night.
The team finished 23-37 at the free throw line, which is unfamiliar for a team that ranks second in the Atlantic 10 in free throw percentage.
“We just have those days,” Gregg said. “A little bit of focus, a little bit of being ready to play, but we just have days where sometimes shots don’t fall. It’s just one of those days.”
Junior guard Jaylen Adams finished the game with 14 points, five rebounds and five assists to contribute to the Bonnies win, while freshman forward Josh Ayeni added 15 points of his own.
Lewis II led the Dukes with 20 points, while graduate forward Kale Abrahamson provided 17 points and six rebounds.
The win marks the third straight season the Bonnies have had double-digit wins in the A10. Schmidt said it means a lot.
“It means that we have had teams and players that have done a good job. When we first got here I’m not sure anybody would have thought that we would have had that type of record,” Schmidt said. “It’s a testament to our players and my coaches for what they’ve done, it’s hard to do in this league for what we have against us.”
The Bonnies will head out for their the final road game of the season as they take on the Davidson Wildcats. The last time these two teams met were in the A10 Tournament Quarterfinal game, where Davidson erased a 15-point lead to send the game to overtime and eventually defeat the Bonnies.
The Bonnies and Wildcats tip off on Tuesday Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.
sawyerjp15@bonaventure.edu
