Photo courtesy of GoBonnies
BY JONNY WALKER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
In the first opportunity to prove itself against a Quadrant 1 opponent this season, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team trailed for all but 54 seconds, losing 77-60 against Auburn in Friday’s Legends Classic Championship game.
Outside of forward Chad Venning’s 14 points on 7-8 shooting, the Bonnies (2-2, 0-0 A-10) failed to find consistent offense. They routinely settled for 3s late in the shot clock after struggling to find penetration against an active Tigers (3-1, 0-0 SEC) defense. Bona’s three starting guards scored a combined 19 points on 23% shooting, including just one made 3-pointer on 13 combined attempts.
“Against a team like Auburn — they’re really long, they’re athletic,” said Bona head coach Mark Schmidt after Friday’s game. “They really press up on the ball.”
On defense, Bona struggled to rotate in response to Auburn’s actions, often chasing the Tigers’ ball movement. Twenty of Auburn’s 25 made field goals were assisted. The Bonnies routinely struggled to close out on 3-point shooters, helping Auburn hit seven first-half 3s on fourteen attempts. And the Bonnies allowed 24 points off turnovers, 16 points off second-chance opportunities and another 10 points off fastbreaks.
“It’s only the fourth game of the season,” said Schmidt. “We got a long way to go. We got three new guys that we’re trying to get involved in our chemistry and in what we’re trying to do.”
.500 through four games, the Bonnies are yet to post back-to-back wins. At times, they’ve looked like the top-70 team they were picked to be ahead of the season. They actually won the second half against Auburn — a top-15 team, according to KenPom — by three.
But the Bonnies have also proved susceptible to allowing game-deciding runs. The Tigers went into the break up 20 following an 8-0 run over the half’s final 59 seconds that included a second-chance 3-pointer, a dunk off a turnover and another 3-pointer from a shooter left wide open in transition. Two games ago against Canisius, the Bonnies went into the break up seven before giving up a 25-2 early-second-half run that they never overcame.
Ahead of the season, Bona head coach Mark Schmidt said he expected his team to make the NCAA Tournament. Through four games, this Bona team has yet to prove it deserves to go dancing in March.
Last week’s loss to Canisius — a likely Quadrant 4 stain on Bonaventure’s resumé come Selection Sunday — meant the Bonnies needed to capitalize on each of the few Quadrant 1 opportunities they’d receive this season. And although Schmidt said he didn’t view Friday’s loss as a missed opportunity, the NCAA’s Selection Committee almost certainly will.
A win over Auburn could have helped the Committee forgive Bona’s early-season hiccup. A win Friday also could have positioned December’s matchup with No. 10 Florida Atlantic, Bonaventure’s only remaining opponent virtually guaranteed to finish as a Quadrant 1, as an opportunity for the Bonnies to cement their non-conference resumé as Tournament worthy.
Instead, the Bonnies likely now have just one remaining path to March Madness: Win the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
walkerjc20@bonaventure.edu
