By Paul Gotham
DAYTON, OH – The outcome was never really in doubt. The means might have been.
Despite playing short-handed the University of Dayton Flyers convincingly defeated the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, 75-61 in Atlantic 10 action Saturday afternoon.
Jordan Sibert led four in double figures with 24 as UD took an eight-point advantage into the half and never looked back.
“I’m happy for him,” Dayton head coach Archie Miller said. “We need that type of performance from him. If he does that we have a chance.”
The senior guard netted half his points in the first stanza when the Flyers assisted on each of their first 12 field goals.
“We’re prone to move the ball around and just get the best one,” Sibert said. “I think we did a great job of it today.”
Sibert’s two three-pointers early in the first half staked the Flyers to a 14-8 cushion. Dyshawn Pierre grabbed a long defensive rebound and led Sibert into the open floor for a layup and a 19-10 Dayton advantage.
“We did a really good job in the first half of finding the extra pass,” Pierre said. “People who got the extra pass knocked the shots down. We tried to limit the turnovers and to get assists and get people feeling good.”
Pierre and Darrell Davis followed with their own treys before Scoochie Smith and Bobby Wehrli combined on a pick-and-pop with Wehrli connecting for UD’s largest lead of the half at 28-16.
“They’re a good team,” St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt commented. “Yeah, they space you out when they shoot the ball like they did, especially in the first half.”
“All in all a really good performance,” Miller said of his team. “A tough performance again by a group of guys who have shown that all season.”
The Flyers, already playing with a short bench because a pair of player were removed from the team in December, lost Kendall Pollard late in the first half when the sophomore forward collided with SBU’s Iakeem Alston.
“He bumped his head either head on head or body on head,” Miller explained. “That point forward he was told he wasn’t going back in.”
That combined with foul trouble – Smith and Wehrli each had two fouls heading into the locker room – left the Flyers with few options.
“You got to play a little bit harder,” said Sibert who was one three Flyers along with Kyle Davis and Pierre who played 37 or more minutes. “It’s just a 40-minute game. You just got to dig down deep and give it your all.”
The Bonnies were without starting point guard Jay Adams who was lost for the season after having surgery for a broken finger.
“I feel bad for them losing him,” Miller said. “He’s a really good player, and they were playing so well coming into our game.”
The Flyers held the reigning conference and national player of the week, Marcus Posley, to 12 points on 5 of 18 shooting.
“That’s what you kinda have to do with a really good scorer,” Miller said. “You have to make him earn it…You just got to make it as tough as possible. He can get going in a big way. He’s really good player. I thought our guys did a decent job of making things hard, making him pass more than necessary. I’m not sure how many open ones he missed.”
Kyle Davis drew the assignment of defending Posley in the first half.
“We came out with a game plan to make sure that we shut him down,” the sophomore guard said. “I feel like we did a good job on him tonight… Coach came up to me and said ‘you got to stick to the national player of the week.’ I told him I was going to lock down and take that challenge.”
Alston stepped in the place of Adams at point for Bona and responded by scoring nine points and handing out two assists in the first half. With the Bonnies trailing by 11, he converted a pair of free throws. Then he and Youssou Ndoye completed three-point plays the hard way. Alston’s drive and layup in traffic made it a 28-24 game.
That was as close as the Bonnies would get for the rest of the game.
“Alston was terrific coming into the game at the point guard slot,” Miller noted. “He gave us a lot of problems.”
Davis was switched on to Alston after the break and limited him to two points and one assist.
“Kyle was locked in and did a good job,” Miller stated.
Pierre registered a double-double with 15 points and game-high 13 rebounds.
Kyle Davis added 13 points to go with two steals and two assists.
Smith chipped in 10 points and a game-high five assists.
Sibert had seven steals.
UD hit 25 of 48 (52.1 percent) from the floor. UD held Bona with zero 3-point field goals in 11 attempts.
Ndoye paced Bona with 16 points and 12 assists. Bona outscored UD in the paint 50-30.
Dayton (19-5/9-3 A-10) hosts Saint Joseph’s on Thursday. The Hawks beat UD on three occasions last year. A 6 pm tipoff is scheduled.
St. Bonaventure hosts Richmond on Wednesday. A 7 pm tip is slated.
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