By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Less than 13 minutes remained in Wednesday’s Atlantic 10 matchup between St. Bonaventure and Saint Joseph’s, and the Bonnies found themselves on the wrong side of the score. A 13-point halftime lead evaporated.
Saint Joseph’s (24-5/13-3) flexed their muscles and showed why they were tied with VCU atop the conference standings.Four different players contributed as the Hawks scored on 12 of their first 14 possessions coming out of the locker room. Aaron Brown fed Isaiah Miles for a pick-and-pop 3-pointer to cap the run, and the Hawks had a 55-53 edge.
Bona, which had led by as much as 15 in the first half, looked rattled. They started the stanza with three straight turnovers. Marcus Posley picked up his third foul. The Bonnies, which had connected on 15-of-26 (57.7 percent) attempts from the floor in the first half, went three minutes without a field goal. Posley’s attempt from behind the arc (his only miss of the night from long range) in the middle of the dry spell looked forced.
Then it happened.
Denzel Gregg connected along the baseline. Posley drove across the lane for a layup. The pair ignited a run in which the Bonnies tallied on 11 straight possessions and outscored SJU, 25-7.
“The reason I’m the most proud is the way we handled adversity,” Bona head coach Mark Schmidt said. “They (Saint Joseph’s) took the lead. After the first TV timeout I don’ think they missed a shot. They scored 62 in the second half.
“But we answered it. When you’re up by 13 or whatever it was at halftime, and a team comes out and they put it to you, it’s easy to lay down…We went right back at ‘em. That was good to see. The guys were doing it.”
Posley went on to score 47 – a season high for all Division I players, but the result, a 98-90 Bona win, had just as much to do with the senior guard’s supporting cast.
Gregg finished with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting with six rebounds and two blocks over 27 minutes of playing time.
“Without those 14 points, we lose,” Schmidt stated. “He was cramping up, so he wasn’t in there all the time. I thought he was a huge difference. We talk about Marcus and Dion, but I thought he was that third guy.
The Hawks expended considerable time and energy on Bona point guard Jaylen Adams who burned them last month for 31 points in an 83-73 Bonnies road win at Philadelphia. Wednesday night, the Hawks were insistent. Adams was not going to beat them.
They doubled the sophomore point guard on ball screens. By the second half, Saint Joseph’s extended their defense 25 feet to contain Adams off the dribble. The result was more space for Posley and the rest of the Bonnies.
Critics will point to the fact that Adams finished with a near-season-high six turnovers. He also handed out a game-high seven assists. Lost in the mix was the number of times Adams beat the trap with a pass to another teammate who collected the assist.
“They were doubling the high ball screen, and it took Jay out of his comfort zone,” Schmidt explained He passed the ball. He got it out of there.
“They did a good job on Jay. You always want a third guy to be able to step and score and he (Denzel) was that guy. We wouldn’t have won without his performance.”
This night was about Posley’s hyperbole-rendering performance (ironic to think another player, Washington’s Andrew Andrews, would also net 47 on Wednesday), but it also gave a glimpse as to what these Bonnies are capable of doing.
Saint Joseph’s took away Adams. The Bonnies did not flinch.
Adams hit 5-of-9 from long range in the win over Dayton. The Baltimore, Md. native went 0-for-2 Wednesday. And yet the Bonnies connected 62.5 percent (10-16) of the time against a team holding opponents to 29.5 percent from long range.
Dion Wright connected on 7-of-12 including 3-of-3 from long range for 22 points.
“It was a big win,” Schmidt said. “We needed it because our goal is to win the Atlantic 10. We knew Saint Joe’s was a game ahead of us. We had to play well, and we did. We found a way. We kept on chopping wood, and we came out victorious.”
St. Bonaventure last reached the NCAA Tournament in 2012 when they won the A-10. Bona grabbed an at-large bid in 2000. The last time St. Bonaventure won an NCAA Tournament game was 1970 when the Bob Lanier-led brown and white reached the national semi-finals. It’s time for another NCAA Tournament win, and this Bona squad has the goods to do it.
St. Bonaventure (21-7/13-4) moved into a three-way tie for second in the A-1o with Dayton and the Hawks. Dayton closes the season at home against first-place VCU (22-8/14-3). Saint Joseph’s hosts Duquesne (15-15/5-12) while Bona travels to play at Saint Louis (10-19/5-12).
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