By Paul Gotham
St. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Basketball does not take into account style points. It’s a good thing. Friday night’s affair at the Reilly Center might have been downgraded from triumph to avoiding defeat.
Demitrius Conger and Matthew Wright keyed a 10-0 run early in the second half as the St. Bonaventure Bonnies overcame a stubborn Bethune-Cookman Wildcats, 65-55 in the home opener on Bob Lanier Court.
Using a deliberate slow-paced offense and showing a variety of looks on defense Bethune-Cookman kept the Bonnies off-balance for most of the night.
“They got us out of rhythm a little bit,” commented St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt. “The way they played; they delayed, held the ball for 20-25 seconds. Then they would go back into their zone and at times we attacked it okay, but at times we struggled against it.”
The Bonnies found some semblance of rhythm soon after the first media timeout of the second half. Conger and Wright connected on back-to-back threes to SBU a 39-32 advantage.
“There always is,” Wright said when asked about first-game jitters. “We were a little hesitant. Maybe it was the first game jitters. We got to beat the zone up the court a lot more.”
Combining with teammate Eric Mosley, Conger and transition. In a pair of rebound and outlet situations, the trio moved the ball up court before the Wildcats had a chance to get set. Mosley found Conger for the first trey, a catch-and-shoot from the left corner. Forty seconds later, Conger found Wright in near carbon copy fashion forcing Bethune-Cookman head coach Gravelle Craig to take a timeout.
“They are bigger and more athletic than us,” Craig said. “We wanted to try and control the tempo of the game. We know they want to get up and down. We wanted to maintain a tempo, so we ran some motion and played a lot of zone tonight and try to make them beat us from the outside.”
The Brown and White didn’t stop there.
Michael Davenport drove baseline and fed Wright open in the lane for a deuce. Mosley hit free throw line jumper and Bona led 43-32.
“We didn’t necessarily play well all the time,” Schmidt added. “It was an ugly game at times or maybe the whole game. Give our guys credit. For the most part they were disciplined.”
The Bonnies stretched the lead to 13. Youssou Ndoye finished a pretty left-handed baby hook, and Wright hit one of two free throws on the next possession for a 51-38 advantage.
“The problem was we were too unselfish,” Wright explained when asked about the difference between the first and second halves. “If I was going to have a problem with my team, I wouldn’t mind having that problem. We were a little hesitant.”
Despite shooting less than 37 percent in the first half, the Bonnies led by four at the break.
Wright found Mosley open at the top of the key for a three to give SBU its largest lead of the first half at 27-15. Ndoye started the play on the defensive end with one of his career-high five blocks. The 7′ center followed with an offensive rebound at the other end which he kicked out to Wright and on to Mosley for the basket.
The Bonnies’ defense created 14 turnovers for the game and converted those into 21 points. Mosley, Chris Johnson and Conger combined late in the second half for a pretty weave after a steal with Conger finishing on a dunk.
Mosley paced the Bona attack with 14 on 4-8 shooting from the floor including 3-6 behind the arc.
Conger and Wright each added 12.
Conger and Ndoye led the Bonas with seven rebounds.
SBU took the battle on the boards, 33-30.
Johnson chipped in nine points.
Davenport had a game-high four assists with two points.
Kevin Dukes led the Wildcats with 16 points.
The 55 points allowed by the Bonnies are the fewest in a season opener since a 68-53 win against New Mexico State on Nov. 17, 2000. Additionally, it’s also the fewest points allowed in home opener since a 58-53 victory over Rice on Dec. 3, 1996.
SBU’s next game is Wednesday in a nationally televised contest at Cornell. A 7 p.m. tip off is scheduled for the Bonnies and Big Red. A game broadcast on NBC Sports Network, formally Versus.
Leave a Reply