Photo Courtesy: Joseph Debell / The Bona Venture
BY: CARSON HAYEK, SPORTS EDITOR
The Bonnies season has ended following a 75-56 loss to Kent State Tuesday night in the National Invitational Tournament.
After a 16-4 start 6:05 into the game, Kent State outscored Bonaventure 71-40 throughout the rest of the game. Struggles shooting cost the Bonnies down the stretch. Bonaventure was outshot in field goal percentage by 16.5% and 20.4% on three-pointers.
Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt pointed out the shooting struggles following the loss.
“We don’t shoot the ball well,” Schmidt said. “That’s one area where we have to win and they dominated us in that. We [were also] sloppy on the foul line. We shot six of 13 and we just didn’t play well enough.”
When the Bonnies’ shots missed, the team failed to get any sort of rebound. Kent State outrebounded the Bonnies 46-29 and outscored Bonaventure 38-20 with points in the paint.
Schmidt also emphasized the importance of physicality after the game.
“[We] can’t get dominated like that,” Schmidt said. “The physical part of the game we typically have done a good job for most parts of the year, but today they got us and that’s why they beat us.”
Not only did Bonaventure struggle with rebounds and points in the paint, but they also had issues with second-chance points. Bonaventure was outscored 14-0 on second-chance points by the Golden Flashes.
Bonnies graduate center Noel Brown gave props to Kent State on their physicality.
“They had physical [centers],” Brown said. “Rotationally they did a good job of sealing and driving [in the paint]. Credit to them as their bigs are strong.”
Schmidt was also critical of the Bonnies’ pace of play after being outscored 21-13 in fastbreak points.
“When you’re not shooting the ball well and you’re not stopping the opponent, it’s really hard to push the ball,” Schmidt said. “It’s harder to run and push the ball when they take the ball out of your hand.”
With just over a minute to go in the season, Schmidt gave walk-on guards Jack DeRose and Broek Ostrom a chance to play in their first action of the season. DeRose ended the night with three points, and Ostrom ended with two.
Schmidt said the two walk-ons deserved the playing time.
“They are special kids,” Schmidt said. “It’s hard to be a walk-on. They work just as hard as our guys and they don’t get paid. When you have an opportunity to put those guys in there you try to do it and it’s great they made shots. It takes a special kid to be a walk-on and those two are really special kids.”
The Bonnies finished the season with 22 wins which was the most since the 2021-2022 season.
