By PAUL GOTHAM
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Friday night’s contest earned few style points. No one knew this better than St. Bonaventure’s head coach Mark Schmidt. The Bonnies needed a 13-5 run in the closing moments to defeat Binghamton, a team which won just six games a year ago.
“It wasn’t a pretty offensive game,” Schmidt said. “I thought both teams played pretty well defensively. First half was ugly. Nobody had any rhythm. There might have been some nerves involved.”
But Bona, minus big men Jordan Tyson (out indefinitely with a torn ligament in his wrist) and Courtney Stockard (out indefinitely with a broken right foot), experimented with its lineup and in the process found some much needed production off the bench in a 63-53 opening night victory.
Denzel Gregg and Nelson Kaputo combined as the Bona bench outscored their counterparts, 22-11.
“We try to bring offense off the bench, and those two guys really did a good job for us tonight,” Schmidt said.
At the half, Gregg led all scorers with nine on four-of-eight shooting while grabbing six rebounds. He finished the night with 15 points and a game-high 11 boards.
“He played really well,” Schmidt stated. “In the first half, Denzel really kept us in the game with some dunks and some energy coming off the bench. For Denzel to have 15 points and 11 rebounds, that’s a heckuva performance.”
The junior forward’s effort came right on time as Jaylen Adams, Marcus Posley and Dion Wright combined for just 17 points on six-of-18 shooting going into the locker room.
“In order for us to be successful, Marcus, Dion and Jay have to play really well for us,” Schmidt. “Tonight, they didn’t play as well as they can, and I know they understand that. They’ll bounce back in the next game.”
Posley’s struggles were particularly noticeable. The senior, who averaged 16.7 ppg a year ago and garnered preseason second team Atlantic 10 accolades, finished with just five points on two-of-10 shooting.
Binghamton head coach Tommy Dempsey pointed out the work of Justin McFadden who drew the responsibility of guarding the Bonnies best scorer.
“We had a really good matchup for Posley,” Dempsey explained. “We have one the best defenders in our league. That was helpful. He (Posley) can just dominate the game, and because he couldn’t dominate the game, that gave us a chance. He’s (McFadden) probably the best perimeter defender in our league. He’s very physical. Obviously, Marcus is very strong. We just had a good matchup for him. That was a real key for us staying in the game.”
It was Bonaventure’s defense which made the difference, and Kaputo’s influence was undeniable.
“I thought Nelson Kaputo was the star of the game,” Schmidt commented. “I thought he came off the bench and really gave us a lift not just offensively but defensively getting some steals.”
The Bonnies gave the Bearcats a variety of looks defensively, and the 2-3 zone proved instrumental.
“For us to win and the reason we won, defensively we did a good job,” Schmidt said. “We did decent job on the backboard. I thought our zone was effective.”
The Brown and White’s 2-3 zone looked more like a 3-2 at times, and Kaputo had a lot to do with that. The 6-0 guard’s lateral quickness created indecision on the part of Binghamton ballhandlers. Passes that would normally find the interior had to be fanned around the top of the key allowing the weak side forward enough time to extend on shooters. Binghamton hit just five of 24 from behind the arc and 17 of 57 overall.
“We got out to three-point shooters,” Schmidt continued. “Going into the game that was one of the concerns… I thought we did a good job of getting to three-point line. To hold a team to 29 percent and 53 points, that’s a great job, defensively.”
Kaputo’s influence could also be seen on the 2-2-1 three-quarter court press. Playing in the second line, the Toronto, Ontario native shrunk the court again with his lateral quickness. What seemed like possible openings were anything but. Kaputo finished the night with three steals. He also created at least that many turnovers forcing Binghamton ballhandlers to throw the ball away to avoid the steal.
“Defensively, with their small group, so to speak, they’re very fast defensively,” Dempsey said. “They can cover a lot of ground. They can switch a lot of things. There’s not a lot of open shots. You have to make some contested shots against them.
“The zone was good. It’s active. It’s fast. I didn’t think they would play much zone, but I was worried about it. Early in the year zone is always good because you have 28 practices and you probably work on zone offenses in three or four of them. Everybody is so locked in to how they’re going to play against man because you see man 80 percent of the time during the year. I thought our zone offense was stagnant. I was a little disappointed in how we played against the zone. That was more my fault than my players’ fault. I don’t think we were prepared to play against as much zone as we saw tonight.”
Wright scored 10 of his game-high 20 in the final 7:52. The senior forward took a feed underneath from Kaputo and finished for a 48-42 Bona lead. On the next possession, he used an inside cut from the top of the key and scored again at the rim. After Kaputo nailed a catch-and-shoot three, Wright converted a pair from the free throw line. Wright’s rebound and putback in the final minute all but sealed the game at 61-51.
“We found a way to win,” Wright said. “It was ugly, but I’ll be satisfied with a win over a loss any day. We all have to play better. I played terrible in the first half, but we found a way to win as a team.”
The Bonnies travel to Syracuse on Tuesday to take on the Orange.
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