By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The St. Bonaventure Bonnies have frequently battled poor first halves this season, so much so that a slow 20-minute opening period has verged on an expectation. But nothing like this.
Bona hadn’t yet surrendered the first 10 points of a contest, hadn’t started a dismal 0-for-9 from the floor. Perhaps most consequentially, it hadn’t debuted that flat against an opponent as good as Virginia Tech, which never opened the slightest window for SBU to come back.
The Hokies delivered an uppercut from the opening tip, cruising to a 13-0 advantage at the first media timeout. The Bonnies’ shots missed the rim or caught the side of the backboard; twice in their first three possessions, they didn’t even get a shot off.
Virginia Tech thrashed Bonaventure from the start, rolling to an 86-49 victory at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center. The Hokies led by as many as 43 points as SBU’s record dropped to 8-3, with just one more non-conference matchup before the start of Atlantic 10 play.
Atlantic 10 foe Dayton, by comparison, defeated Mike Young’s Hokies 62-57 at UD Arena last Sunday.
“We didn’t have many answers,” said Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt, who has only suffered one larger defeat at Bona by margin of victory, a 52-point loss at Mississippi State in 2009. “We didn’t play well at all.”
Virginia Tech lived up to its reputation as a dominant perimeter squad, making 13 of its 28 3-pointers while holding an oft-harried Bona team to a 6-of-23 mark from beyond the arc.
Hunter Cattoor was virtually unguardable, draining each of his five 3s and missing just one of his seven field goal attempts in a career-high 21-point performance. Storm Murphy, who was shooting a pedestrian 33 percent from the field over his last five games, scored 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, 4-of-7 from 3-point range.
Kyle Lofton’s return to the St. Bonaventure lineup, in which he managed just three points on 1-of-4 shooting and committed five turnovers, could not prevent the bleeding. Lofton, to the contrary, admitted that he probably should not have returned yet with an ankle that wasn’t 100 percent. Schmidt said Lofton was not a full practice participant until Friday.
“It was up to me; I wanted to play,” Lofton commented. “But I definitely wasn’t myself. I was like three steps slower today, on offense and defense. I really wasn’t myself. Hopefully the next couple days we’ll do rehab and I’ll just feel better.”
The Bonnies’ offense reflected their hobbled point guard’s limitations, committing its second-most turnovers of the Lofton, Osun Osunniyi, Dom Welch era (20, behind only the 24 SBU committed at Syracuse on Dec. 29, 2018). Bona didn’t score its 10th point until there was 6:51 remaining in the first half, producing a year-low 20 first-half points.
Welch was the only Bonnie to reach double figures, scoring 11 points. He required 11 field goal attempts to record that number.
“I don’t think it’s confidence,” Schmidt remarked. “Those five guys have played in big games and had a lot of success. I just thought they outplayed us. They put us on our heels and then we started rushing things, which, you get down by 15-20 and you have a hard time scoring, you’re trying to rush things and you’re trying to make eight-point plays.
“We kind of panicked, a little bit, but… give Virginia Tech credit. They shot the ball well, went inside. They dominated us.”
Bona has now shot 35 percent or worse on 12 occasions since the start of the 2018-19 season and is 2-10 in those contests. As much as its fan base, some of which was in attendance with many more stunned at home, would like to destroy the tape, that is never Schmidt’s inclination.
The Bonnies will rest Saturday and study the film on Sunday.
“I think we have a bunch of guys that are upset at how they played, disappointed,” Schmidt said. “We’ll make some corrections, and hopefully we can make those corrections when we play Northeastern on Wednesday.”
I am a ‘59 Grad and have been following this team ever since. Been waiting to top the Final Four year for it seems like eternity. Time is running out on my Bonnie dream season. This year, it was going to happen according to all the old Brown Indians. They can still do it, but today’s effort will make it very difficult just to get into the Big Dance. They may have been overrated but I’ll still be hollering “Let’s go Bonnies”at the TV!
Chuckie:
Why haven’t you asked the big questions?…….Where in hell was Holmes and Adaway. I didn’t see Adaway even attempt one of his patented turn-around jumpers, and Holmes stopped driving the lane early in the first half. The only two guys playing together were Osun and Welch. Everybody was tentative except Quadry Adams. Where was the coaching staff. Were they at a different game? They let that go on for 40 minutes. The new Holmes led 5 should have started and Kyle should have come off the bench….. because the Holmes led 5 have played 3 of the most intense games start to finish that, I’ve seen Bona play in years. Then Kyle starts and it’s back to flatsville.
What’s up?
Phil Johnston
Bona’s ’61