By Paul Gotham
ST. BONAVENTURE, NY – St. Bonaventure managed to execute part of its game plan Saturday night.
It was what they didn’t accomplish that made the difference.
George Washington used an eight-point run midway through the second half to top St. Bonaventure, 79-71 in Atlantic 10 action on Bob Lanier Court.
St. Bonaventure managed to keep GW’s Isaiah Armwood in check holding the big man without a field goal. His teammates took advantage.
“If someone before the game told me that Armwood was going to get five points, we’d have a good chance of winning,” St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said. “Good big guys shrink your defense. We have to give up something.”
And with the Bonnies defense collapsing in the paint, Maurice Creek led a GW perimeter attack which connected nine times behind the arc.
“That was the key for us tonight,” George Washington coach Mike Lonergan said of Creek’s shooting. “He broke out for us.”
The graduate student connected on 5 of 10 attempts behind the arc and finished with a game-high 21 points.
“Maurice, to tell you truthfully, has really struggled probably the last four games,” Lonergan stated. “A lot of teams were keying on him. He wasn’t getting as many open looks. He was forcing some things. His numbers had gone down.”
Creek jump started the decisive 8-0 run when he cut from the baseline, curled off a screen and nailed a catch-and-shoot jumper to give the Colonials a lead they never surrendered.
“I was trying to run a screen and hoped they went below it,” Lonergan explained of the efforts to free Creek on the wing. “He’s got 25, 26 foot range.”
GW’s defense took over from there. Kethan Savage got a steal and went the length of the floor where he was fouled and converted one of two. Savage grabbed a long rebound on the next possession, went end-to-end and switched to his left hand in the lane for a layup. Patricio Garino stepped in a passing lane for another turnover and converted at the other end.
With the run, GW took command of what was a one-possession game. The teams traded seven leads in the first eight minutes coming out of the locker room and 13 times in the game.
“We really needed that,” Lonergan said. “It was nice to have that cushion.”
The Colonials took advantage of the lead and switched defenses. Their 1-3-1 zone proved effective, and they held SBU’s leading scorer, Matthew Wright, to six points on 2 of 9 shooting.
“I thought we did a pretty good job on Matt Wright,” Lonergan noted. “We were really focused on him. We had a little bit of a lead late, and they had to take some deeper 3s against our 1-3-1. Probably not as good of shots as they normally take. We were fortunate too because they missed a lot of open 3s early that they normally make.”
The Colonials also turned 18 Bona miscues into 22 points.
“We didn’t take care of the ball,” Schmidt stated. “Twenty-two points off turnovers…that can’t happen.”
After a pair of close road losses to ranked teams, SBU looked poised to knock off the surging Colonials.
Trailing for much of the first half, the Bonnies scored six straight to take a 30-29 lead into the locker room.
“We did what we wanted to do defensively in the first half,” Schmidt commented. We had chances.”
Down five, Marquise Simmons and Youssou Ndoye combined to hit five of six from the free throw line. Matthew Wright gave Bonaventure a one-point with 3-pointer in transition.
“We had some open shots,” Schmidt noted. “We couldn’t hit those big shots at the big moments.”
And the Colonials, in particular Creek, did.
Creek knocked down a pair of shots early to give GW its first lead at 8-7. He scored the Colonials’ first points of the night on a kick-out from post player Kevin Larsen.
“He definitely has a green light when he is open,” Lonergan said. “When he hit some early, I knew we’d be okay.”
Savage added 17 points and five assists. Larsen scored 15 and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.
Joe McDonald dished out a game-high six assists.
Armwood came in averaging more than 11 points per game.
Andell Cumberbatch paced St. Bonaventure with 15 points. Ndoye chipped in 14, and Jordan Gathers had 12. Dion Wright scored 11.
George Washington improved to 15-3/3-1 on the season. The Colonials defeated 2013 A-10 finalist VCU, 76-66 earlier in the week. The Colonials have been receiving votes in the polls for the last nine weeks.
St. Bonaventure falls to 11-7/1-3. The Bonnies were coming off consecutive single-digit losses on the road to ranked teams: 73-68 to No. 15 UMass and 66-60 to No. 23 St. Louis.
“The margin for error is not too big in this league,” Schmidt said. “We’re not here for moral victories. The guys understand that they’re good when they execute.”
The Colonials play at George Mason next Saturday.
St. Bonaventure hosts 2013 Sweet Sixteen participant La Salle on Wednesday night. The 11-6/3-0 Explorers have won five straight. A 9 p.m. tip time is scheduled at the Reilly Center. The game will be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network.
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