Bonas upend Duquesne

By Paul Casey Gotham

St. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — For more than 39 minutes the Duquesne Dukes answered every challenge brought by the St. Bonaventure Bonnies. When St. Bonaventure took an early lead scoring from beyond the arc, the Dukes didn’t flinch. The Bonnies then turned to their inside game. Duquesne took it in stride. Bona mounted a late rally, and the Dukes appeared to have a solution.

That is until the Bonnies offered a reply of their own.

Michael Davenport’s three-pointer with one tick remaining electrified the Reilly Center as the St. Bonaventure Bonnies defeated the Duquesne Dukes 64-62 in Atlantic 10 action on Saturday night.

Davenport took a backwards shovel pass from Demetrius Conger and let fly with a dagger that brought an end to the Dukes’ undefeated run in the A10.

“We run a play all the time. We call it sprint,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt explained. “Ogo (Adegboye) takes the ball out-of-bounds. We ran it a little bit differently because they were switching. But you want to try to get the ball back to Ogo, and let him drive and kick it. They denied Ogo when Demetrius got it.”

From there, Conger took command. The 6’6″ sophomore forward took the inbound pass under the Bona’s defensive basket pivoted and found nothing but open court in front of him. He alertly drove over half-court and just inside the three-point arc, pivoted again and handed the ball to Davenport for the winner.

“Demetrius drew two people in,” Davenport commented. “If it wasn’t for Demetrius doing that, I don’t think I would have gotten a good look at the basket. I took what was there and capitalized on it.

The play ended a frantic series of events where the lead changed hands three times in the game’s final minute and a half.

“Demetrius took it and did what Ogo was supposed to do,” Schmidt added. “Mike circled behind and knocked it down.”

A pair of Damian Saunders free throws gave the Dukes a four-point edge at 58-54 with less than three minutes remaining.  Adegboye answered with a pair from the charity stripe.

Duquesne had a chance to stretch the lead when B.J. Montiero found himself open behind the arc, but a hustling Matt Wright sprinted to the spot and created a distraction causing the Duquesne guard to misfire. Conger blocked out Duquesne’s Bill Clark giving Davenport an open lane for the rebound.

Schmidt called a timeout, and the Bonnies ran a sideline out-of-bounds play. After the ball changed sides of the court, Wright used the window to connect for three from the right side and a 59-58 lead.

The Dukes’ Mike Talley drove the lane, drew contact and went to the line. But the freshman guard missed both, and in the ensuing scramble, the Bonnies got another timeout.

St. Bonaventure stretched the lead to three when Adegboye beat the Duquesne press and fed Conger in the lane for a two-handed slam.

But the Dukes refused to go away.

T.J. McConnell hit a pair from the free throw line. After the Bonnies failed to convert at the other end, Montiero gave the Dukes back the lead.

Talley and Saunders ran a high pick and roll on the right side of the floor. Talley drove left and fed Saunders at the free throw line who, in turn, found Montiero slipping along the baseline for a reverse lay up and a 62-61 margin with nine seconds left in the game.

Davenport paced the Bonnies with an early barrage of early threes. Things started well when Davenport kissed the glass on Bona’s first possession. One trip later, the Dukes tripled team Andrew Nicholson, and the junior forward kicked it to Davenport at the top of the arc for another 3-pointer. Next time down the floor and another three for Davenport. This time, Demetrius Conger took a diagonal pass from Ogo Adegboye and hit Davenport at the top for another trey.

With Davenport forced the Dukes out of the paint, Nicholson took advantage scoring the next six.

The junior forward created space with a pair of dribbles and finished along the baseline with his left over the outstretched hands of Saunders.

Then Nicholson switched directions. He caught the ball on the left block again, used a dribble and deftly pointed his right shoulder into Saunders for leverage and finished a baby hook with his right hand in the lane.

Duquesne shifted their attention back to Nicholson.

The native of Mississauga, Ontario took advantage and set up Wright for a three and a 22-16 lead.

The Dukes brought an eleven-game winning streak into the game. Duquesne won their first eight games in the A10 by an average margin of 17 points. The Dukes turnover margin of 7.1 and 19 assists per game both rank number one in the country.

“I thought we played really hard in a very tough environment against an inspired team,” Duquesne coach Ron Everhart reflected. “You got to take your hats off to St. Bonaventure’s kids. They found a way at the end.”

Davenport hit 4-of-7 from behind the arc and led the Bonnies with 16 points. His fourth trifecta touched off a celebration where the Bona student section rushed the court.

“The tradition of the Reilly Center was true tonight,” Schmidt commented. “It was a great crowd. We wouldn’t have won this game anywhere else.”

Nicholson and Wright added 15 apiece. Da’Quan Cook led the Bonas with nine boards including six on the offensive end as St. Bonaventure held a 39-38 edge on the glass.

Duquesne came into the game averaging 82 points per game.

Montiero had a game-high 17 with Saunders adding 16 and Clark 15 for the Dukes. Saunders registered a double-double grabbing 14 rebounds half of which came on the offensive glass. The Dukes had a 15-8 advantage on second-chance points.

St. Bonaventure improves to 4-5 in the A10 and 12-10 overall. Duquesne falls to 8-1 in the conference and 16-6 for the campaign.

Both teams get a little break before their next game. Bonaventure hosts LaSalle next Saturday. Duquesne plays Xavier on Sunday.