By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
St. Bonaventure’s marketing slogan entering the 2016-17 season, the campaign after being unceremoniously omitted from the NCAA Tournament, was “Leave No Doubt.”
After leaving little doubt in its Atlantic 10 quarterfinal game on Friday, the rallying cry could be more apt for the 2020-21 Bonnies.
The Bonnies built a cushion in the first half of their win over Duquesne, taking a convincing 40-19 lead into the halftime locker room. They never trailed after the score was 7-6 four minutes in and absorbed a furious Dukes rally at the start of the second half by grabbing second chance points and alley-oop dunks.
Bona won 75-59 at the Siegel Center to improve its overall record to 14-4 and advance to Saturday’s semifinal matchup against Saint Louis.
“Duquesne is a very physical team,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt remarked, “and we thought that the team that could control the paint was the team that was gonna win.”
Osun Osunniyi provided the star frontcourt presence the Bonnies needed against Keith Dambrot’s Dukes, scoring 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting and grabbing 14 rebounds while also recording a team-high six assists and blocking three shots in 38 minutes. Osunniyi’s passing out of the post led to two of the team’s six 3-pointers and helped the Bonnies shoot just under 50 percent from the field.
“We got out and ran; they had to scramble,” Osunniyi noted. “I’ve always been an able passer, willing passer, to be able to find my guys, open the lane up for myself later in the game. That’s just how I play. I’ve always been playing like that.”
Duquesne struggled to maintain possession in the first half, committing 10 turnovers in 37 possessions, and missed 18 of the 25 field goal attempts it got off. The Bonnies pounced on those mistakes, scoring 17 points off turnovers and also recording six second chance points on offensive rebounds.
Bonaventure opened up a 17-5 run over the last 6:14 of the first half, stretching a nine-point advantage to 21. Four of Schmidt’s five starters scored in that span, and the fifth (Dominick Welch) already had 12 points by that point.
“We got some stuff off our defense, got some stuff in the open court,” Schmidt remarked. “I thought against Dayton we were sluggish with the ball. The ball was sticking; it wasn’t moving. We passed the ball, moved the ball from side to side a little bit better today, in the first half…
“When it gets stuck, everything slows down. Defense sets itself. We’ve gotta get that ball moving. When we do that, we’re a decent offensive team.”
Duquesne adjusted to full-court pressure in an attempt to slow the Bonnies, who made just one of their first five field goal attempts and committed five turnovers in the first 6:15 of the second frame.
“I thought we lost some focus,” Schmidt assessed. “We got lackadaisical, loose with the ball. Duquesne upped their pressure a little bit; we didn’t handle it very well for that four, five, six minutes. But sitting in the timeout, the guys know we’re still up by nine or 10. So we’re still in decent shape, but we needed to make a run.”
As the Dukes rallied with a 20-7 run and thinned the margin to 10, Keith Dambrot’s team was emboldened. After SBU called timeout with 13:42 remaining, Duquesne reserves came out to celebrate with their on-court teammates. Kyle Lofton and Welch found themselves in a sea of red as they attempted to return to their bench.
Bona reserve guard Alpha Okoli, who had come off the bench to half court to high-five his teammates, saw the confrontation occurring and ran to his teammates’ aid. A minor scuffle ensued as Bona chased after Okoli and removed him from the situation. Okoli was assessed a Class A administrative technical foul and ejected from the game, while the Dukes shot two foul shots and cut their deficit to eight points.
“It’s always like that with this team,” Welch said, “but we always try to keep our heads…. We’re a mature team.”
The brouhaha interrupted the game as officials sorted out punishment, unintentionally halting Duquesne’s run as a result. The Bonnies used the extended timeout to refocus and made three of their next five shots, igniting a 16-3 run over the next eight minutes.
A re-energized Bona squad closed the game with 15 points over the last 6:33, including a fast break dunk by Jaren Holmes and two Osunniyi alley-oops.
“(Michael) Hughes, he tries to block everything. And he’s really good at it,” Schmidt commented about Duquesne’s star center. “So really, the emphasis was when he went to block it, we want to have back-side rebounding. We did a good job of throwing some lobs and ‘Shoon did a really good job of getting to the weak side and putting down the misses. That’s a big key.”
Over half (42) of Bonaventure’s 75 points came off turnovers or second chance baskets. The Bonnies outscored Duquesne 50-30 in the paint.
All five Bonaventure starters reached double figures, with Welch and Osunniyi tying for a game-high 18 points. Welch made four of his 10 3-point tries and was a rebound away from a double-double.
Schmidt did not entertain a question about if the Bonnies’ win ensured an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. His thoughts on the matter were unsurprising.
“The one thing that can fix everything,” he said, “is we win tomorrow and then we go to Dayton and we win next Sunday, we control our own destiny.”
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