By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
St. Bonaventure’s trip to EagleBank Arena to play George Mason on Wednesday evening resembled its post-Thanksgiving game against Northern Iowa far too closely for the Bona faithful’s comfort.
The Patriots settled in from 3-point range, taking full advantage of the Bonnies’ slow defensive rotations by drilling 15 3-pointers in 32 attempts. The Bonnies started each half slow and never took the lead, failing to close the deficit to fewer than four points.
George Mason secured a 75-66 victory, dropping the Bonnies to 11-5 and 3-2 in Atlantic 10 play. Bona completed its rare three-game conference road trip with a 1-2 record.
“Part of it is us not executing, turning the ball over,” Bona coach Mark Schmidt remarked. “And then from a defensive standpoint, getting back and setting up our pack line. It was too much dribble penetration.”
Bona committed five giveaways over the first 5:07, keying a 14-3 Mason lead. Kim English’s team scored 22 of its 33 first half points off Bonnies turnovers and also hit seven 3s. Bonaventure managed to trail by just four at halftime, thanks in part to Dominick Welch tallying 14 points on the strength of four 3-pointers, but the momentum was short-lived.
Mason shrugged off a perfectly-executed lob from Kyle Lofton to Jalen Adaway and ripped off an 18-2 run, sinking four of its seven 3-point attempts, to take an 18-point lead with 15:30 remaining. Bona frequently doubled Josh Oduro and Davonte Gaines on the low block and, in turn, was slow to find perimeter shooters D’Shawn Schwartz and DeVon Cooper, who each made five shots from beyond the arc.
This wasn’t a one-man exhibition, like Northern Iowa stud AJ Green’s performance in the Reilly Center. Four Patriots splashed in multiple 3s to win their third game in five days.
“You have to do something with Oduro, and we made some mistakes. We went and doubled him too early,” Schmidt acknowledged. “They hit some 3s, and give them credit: they made some shots. But it’s really us being able to guard the ball better, keeping the ball in front of us so we don’t have to really help. They got us in rotations, and they have some good shooters.”
Schwartz led all scorers with 20 points, while Cooper added 18 and Oduro and Gaines contributed 15 and 14, respectively. Mason was also turnover-prone, however, eventually turning the ball over twice more than the Bonnies. The Patriots committed five turnovers and sent Bona to the line for 11 free throws over the next 9:42, sparking a 24-10 SBU that made it a four-point game with 5:29 to play.
Making such a furious run, however, sapped Bona’s energy and did not increase its little room for error. Bona came up empty on its next two possessions and Cooper, who hadn’t made a 3-pointer since the 11:57 mark, got one to go to extend GMU’s lead to seven. Osun Osunniyi turned the ball over in the post on the other end, suffering an injury that caused him to momentarily exit the game in the process, and Xavier Johnson added the insult with a 5-on-4 3-ball to return the margin to double-digits.
For the first time since the Dec. 11 loss to UConn, Osunniyi did not block a shot, mainly a result of Mason shooting so many outside shots. The entire 3-happy nature of the game did not play in Bona’s favor; four of its five losses have come when it attempts 20 or more 3-point shots.
Adaway and Kyle Lofton each scored 15 points, while Jaren Holmes and Welch each added 14. The consistency problems that have ailed Bona throughout conference play, however, reared their ugly head against a Mason team that has found its groove.
“We’re not executing the way we need to execute when the game’s on the line,” Schmidt assessed. “… We’ve gotta get back to being that blue-collar team, not the pretty team but the team that plays the hardest.”
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