By Paul Casey Gotham
Nine seconds remained on the Reilly Center clock – 9.1 to be exact. St. Bonaventure’s Bonnies trailed by one, with the ball, no timeouts and 94 feet from the basket. Instinctively, Ogo Adegboye stepped out-of-bounds to start the deadball play.
“We run a play all the time. We call it sprint,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt explained. “Ogo 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 (Conger) got it.”
Denied? Stalked might be the better word. Adegboye inbounded the ball to Conger, and Duquesne’s T.J. McConnell stepped between Adegboye and the ball and followed the senior point guard up the court.
Without skipping a beat, Adegboye shifted from floor general to decoy creating a four-on-four situation by taking the younger McConnell away from the play.
Conger took advantage of the open floor and dribbled to the opposite three-point arc before dishing off to Michael Davenport for game-winning three-pointer.
Davenport scored the basket.
Conger was credited with the assist.
Adegboye made the play.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOzyciOCH0k]
Rather than try and force himself into the final sequence, Adegboye took what was given. He let the game come to him, and the Bonnies benefited.
One might understand if the London, England native chose a different tact. After all, the Duquesne defense harassed him into frustration.
If nothing else, the final play was one of irony.
Adegboye had committed eight turnovers while handing out just three assists in 33 minutes of play. He might have hung his head in frustration.
But his teammates know him better than that.
“Regardless of what happens, there is always more game to play,” Davenport commented echoing his teammate’s wisdom. “Ogo is a team guy. He has the attention of everyone on the floor. He loves to compete, and he lets everybody know that you can’t let one turnover get you down.”
Given the less-than flattering numbers, the Dukes might have considered letting 6′ point guard get the ball.
Given those numbers, St. Bonaventure might have considered alternatives.
Instead, the Dukes denied; the Bonnies adjusted, and everyone gained an understanding of the respect for Adegboye’s abilities. Even though his miscues outnumbered his assists by more than two-to-one, all on the floor knew who could make the last play.
It’s an impressive level of respect gained by a player in less than two seasons in the conference.
“Ogo grew a lot last summer when he played on the England national team,” Schmidt added. “He brought that experience back with him.”
Adegboye started in a Great Britain lineup with the Chicago Bulls’ Luol Deng and the University of Washington’s Matthew Bryan-Amaning.
The experience paid off earlier this season when the Nigerian-born point guard led the nation averaging more than 40 minutes of playing time per game.
Adegboye played all 40 minutes in a 76-74 victory over the University of Buffalo. He repeated the performance in a 67-66 triumph over St. John’s at the Carnesecca Arena. In a quadruple-overtime win over Ohio, Adegboye played 59 minutes. He played all 45 minutes of an overtime loss to Virginia Tech, and the senior logged the entire 55 minutes of a triple overtime conference win against Charlotte.
In all, Adegboye played at least 36 minutes in each of St. Bonaventure’s first 14 games.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpF5-8TWoWw]
Saturday afternoon, the Bonnies host the Rhode Island Rams on Senior Day. After the pre-game ceremony, Adegboye, the Bonnies’ lone senior, will take the court. Forty minutes of game time on the clock. Forty minutes to take what is given.
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