By PAUL GOTHAM
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what St. Bonaventure would run when it needed a basket late in Saturday’s Atlantic 10 matchup with Dayton.
Jaylen Adams using a high ball screen had worked all day.
He had scored going right. He scored going left. He pulled up, stepped back, drove the lane, the baseline and in general pushed a Dayton team known for defense on its heels.
When it mattered most, Adams feasted on Dayton’s indecision.
The play has been running on a continuous loop among Bona nation since the win. Adams starts with the ball and passes left to teammate Marcus Posley. Three touches later, the sophomore point guard has the rock in hands again at the top of the key. Floor balanced with Posley to the left, Dion Wright came to set the screen.
Adams and Wright combined on the second half’s first possession. When Dayton hedged hard, Wright slipped the screen, and Adams led him into the lane for a wide open dunk.
In the game’s opening moments, the pair had worked a pick-and-pop with Wright drilling a triple.
Adams ended the first half coming off a Derrick Woods ball screen and connecting for three before the buzzer.
But with less than 40 seconds remaining in a tie game, Bona didn’t need a three.
Dayton had to contain the dribble, something the Flyers struggled to do throughout the game. Earlier in the half Adams drove the lane for an and-one. It was his second three-point play of the stanza.
At the same time, UD had to make sure Wright didn’t get free for another bucket. Then there was Posley who has hit share of game winners.
At first glance, it looks like UD’s Dyshawn Pierre is late on the screen. But is he? If the Dayton forward hedges hard is he just leaving the lane empty for another Wright bucket? Charles Cooke, UD’s 6-5 guard/forward with a wing span of a 6-10 guy, looked like the best matchup for the defense in the situation. Obviously, Cooke is not going under. He had to protect against Adams turning down the screen. Cooke also needed to stay close to Wright.
“Jay made great decisions all night,” Bona head coach Mark Schmidt said. “He not only shot the ball well he attacked. He was under control the whole game. He was the reason why we won.”
Here’s Jaylen Adam’s ice-water three that spurred the @BonniesMBB #A10MBB victory!https://t.co/a37XTCpwgs
— Atlantic 10 MBB (@A10MBB) February 20, 2016
Dayton led the game for exactly 1:59 or on three occasions. Each time, Adams answered for Bona. After Cooke gave UD an early 3-2 edge, Adams hit his first of five 3-balls on the day. The Baltimore, Maryland native responded to a 36-35 deficit late in the first half with the five straight including another trey fora 40-36 Bona lead going into the locker room. Dayton looked like it was finding itself and scored nine straight midway the second for a 54-52 advantage. Adams followed with an and-one. SBU never trailed again.
And the Mt. St. Joseph product did it in a manner which led the onlooker to believe this was something he expected of himself. Yes, if this was music, Jay Adams was as cool as Miles Davis, and he left the Dayton faithful feeling Kind of Blue.
The win was nothing if unlikely. No. 15/13 Dayton, coming off a loss, hadn’t suffered consecutive setbacks in 77 games. UD owned a 20-game home conference win streak. The last time Bona won at UD Arena, the only time Bona won on Edwin C. Moses Boulevard, came more than a decade prior. The Bonnies only other road victory against a ranked opponent occurred in 1961 when the brown and white knocked off Villanova. But that game took place at the Palestra – in other words a neutral site. Bona hadn’t done this in program history.
“Biggest conference win on the road that we’ve had,” Schmidt said. “Coming in here and you read all the game notes, 77 straight games that they’ve won coming off a loss, all that.
“This is what you practice for,” Schmidt added. “This is something as you’re a young kid you dream about playing in this kind of environment, in this type of game on national television.”
Adams hit a buzzer beater just a couple weeks ago, but Saturday’s shot might stand up there with the likes of Jordan Gathers and the “shot that shook Flatbush” or Matthew Wright‘s trey that clinched a top four spot for the eventual 2012 A-10 champion Bonnies.
Saturday’s closing moments played out like that game in 2012 when Bona defeated Saint Joseph’s in double overtime. Afterwards, Hawks head coach Phil Martelli spoke of his team’s inability to match St. Bonaventure’s endurance.
“We had a couple of switches that we didn’t execute,” Martelli said. “We just didn’t believe all the way for 40 minutes or 45 minutes or 50 minutes. Just a couple of switches that we missed.”
Saturday Dayton’s Archie Miller could only marvel at the opposing point guard.
“Jaylen Adams has just an unbelievable way of playing,” Miller stated. “He’s one of the best that I think I’ve coached against. To do what he’s able to do and never come out of the game is incredible. He set the tone very early on.”
“When you have a guard who can do what he did, in that environment he can beat anybody in the country.”
SBU’s 2012 version won 10 conference games before reaching the NCAA Tournament – a first in more than a decade. Saturday’s was this team’s 10th win with four games remaining. A chance for Adams and this team to add to its lore.
*Updated 7:30 EST 2/22/16.
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