By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Jalen Adaway didn’t pump fake this time, deciding it was time to trust his jump shot with a pack of doubting Wildcats giving him ample real estate.
The look, just like the openings teammates Dominick Welch and Jaren Holmes had enjoyed over the course of Wednesday’s game, was perfect. The shot, something Adaway has shown in flashes this season, fell through the net without a struggle.
“He struggled with his shot; he was hesitant all game,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt remarked of his junior tri-captain. “He really struggled. But it just showed that he overcame that. And we always talk about dealing with adversity, and he dealt with it.”
Davidson’s dominance over St. Bonaventure, a run that spanned four games from March 2018 to Valentine’s Day 2020, is no more. The Wildcats didn’t score again after Adaway’s go-ahead 3-pointer, coming up empty on their last three possessions including the game’s final trip.
Bona won 56-53 at Belk Arena, improving its record to 12-3 overall and 10-3 in Atlantic 10 play. SBU has now won 10 or more conference games in seven consecutive seasons, but few came as pressure-filled as the team’s last true road game of 2020-21.
Welch, Holmes and the Bonnies threatened to put the game out of reach early in the second half, a foreign situation in the series history.
Welch made four 3-pointers in the first 12 minutes as Bona ran out to an early 24-22 lead. Davidson hung around despite scoreless first halves from Kellan Grady and Sam Mennenga, but the Bonnies, unencumbered by foul trouble and threading the ball offensively, ended the half on an 11-0 run.
Adaway, Osunniyi and Welch keyed the burst, but it was Holmes’s 3-pointer before halftime that dealt the Wildcats a 39-28 deficit entering the locker room. Eight turnovers marred a respectable though unimpressive shooting half for Davidson, which shot 45.8 percent from the field.
“It’s hard to play inside if you don’t have an outside game loosening up the middle,” Schmidt said. “We’ve done a good job of driving the ball, driving and kicking. But if you’re not hitting those shots, it makes it more difficult; it’s almost like they don’t play you. So it’s important, it’s really important… those guys have been working their tails off. We’ve got good shooters and we’re showing it right now.”
Belk Arena’s mystique was absent from prior years, but the Wildcats weren’t.
Bonaventure extended its advantage to 14 points on two occasions, first on an Adaway layup and Holmes 3-pointer during the first 1:54 of the second half and again on a Holmes jumper with 16:48 remaining. The Bonnies, however, went scoreless for the next 5:16 as Davidson rallied for a 9-0 run.
Mark Schmidt’s team missed 18 of its 25 field goal attempts in the second half, including a meager 4-of-18 mark on two-point tries. Davidson didn’t shoot much better in the frame, going 10-of-25, but carved its way back into the game with eight second chance points.
The Wildcats never took a second-half lead, but Luka Brajkovic’s layup with 2:29 remaining tied the contest at 53. Adaway’s go-ahead 3-ball was the last of SBU’s 17 second-half points after reaching that mark halfway through the first half.
Carter Collins triggered the Wildcat charge, making his fourth 3-point basket with 3:19 to play. Collins, the relatively unexpected source of offense on a night Davidson’s known commodities were quiet, matched his best 3-point shooting game against an A-10 opponent and finished with 16 points.
Bona could have put the game away with a score on at least one of its last two possessions, but Lofton’s 3-point shot and Holmes’s jumper both missed the mark. Davidson called timeout with 12 seconds left, the chance to send the game to overtime in its hands.
The Bonnies, who never foul to send their opponent to the line in that situation, denied the inbounding Grady the chance to force five more minutes. Bona also hounded the sharpshooting Hyungjung Lee and forward Nelson Boachie-Yiadom, forcing both players to quickly pass out of pressure.
Brajkovic, who had missed all three of his shots from beyond the arc, had the opportunity. The 6-foot-10 big was quickly smothered by Osunniyi, who closed the gap and partially blocked the shot. The ball fell well short, into the arms of Welch, and the SBU celebration was on.
“Experienced winners,” Schmidt said of his team. “We could’ve folded; we had a 14-point lead and they tied it up. We could’ve folded, and we kept on playing. Jalen hit that big shot in the corner and we got the stops when we needed to get the stops. I’ve said it over and over again: Offense is fickle; you never know. The staple has to be defense and rebounding.”
Grady was held to two or fewer points for just the third time in his 111-game career. The Bonnies held Davidson under 60 points in consecutive games after the Wildcats had been held under 60 just once all season.
“(Grady) didn’t get many open looks; Lee got a couple,” Schmidt assessed, “but that was the difference. Offense, we played well in the first half; Dom kept us in the game. In the second half we really struggled offensively, missed a lot of shots, a lot of layups, but it didn’t affect our defense.
“And to hold that team to 53 points, that’s an unbelievable effort by our guys. A lot of times when your offense isn’t going sometimes the defense, they suffer. But our guys were really locked in defensively and that’s why we won.”
Bona’s most immediate goal, as Schmidt himself said, is to win its remaining games and earn the A-10 regular season title. Tied once again at the top of the standings with Virginia Commonwealth, there are still wins to grab. But for a night, Schmidt could reflect on the program he built and the seven stellar seasons that have made up the league’s longest double-digit win streak.
“A lot of people can do it one, two, three years,” Schmidt acknowledged. “To be able to do it for seven straight years, that says a lot about our players and our program, and we’re doing it in a very competitive league. For us to be the only team that’s done that, it’s pretty amazing.
“All the credit goes to our players.”
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