By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Head coach Mark Schmidt routinely discusses the importance of the first five minutes of the second half, how a team can double its lead or have it halved during that time. This is particularly true for St. Bonaventure, which has made the second half its meal ticket this season.
The Bonnies let it be known before the first media timeout on Saturday that there would be no collapse against the last place Duquesne Dukes. SBU (17-7, 9-4) held its embattled opponent scoreless for the first 4:20 of the second period, leaving the locker room on a 9-0 run.
Bona surrendered its fewest points in a half in conference play, and second-fewest of the season, when Duquesne managed just 15 on 9-of-26 shooting over the first 20 minutes. Schmidt’s charges rolled to an 81-55 victory in front of an 80s Weekend crowd of 4,620, with each of the starters done for the night with 2:15 remaining.
It was Bonaventure’s most lopsided victory over Duquesne (6-19, 1-12) in the 124-game series history.
“We talked about it in the locker room during halftime, how we came out against Saint Louis and had a crappy first two minutes before the first media,” Osun Osunniyi recalled. “We’ve kinda been emphasizing that a lot, coming out in the first five minutes just kind of playing hard, not letting teams back in the game. Think we did a good job of that today.”
No player on the fledgling Dukes roster could defend Osunniyi, who was predictably stellar. Osunniyi scored 18 points after making each of his seven field goals and all four free throws. The 6-foot-10 center, who also corralled 10 rebounds for his 20th career double-double (four against Duquesne), recorded his 1,000th career point in the process.
Osunniyi credited his teammates for finding him in the right spots and assistant coach Sean Neal for rebounding his free throws every day in the Reilly Center.
The Bonnies did a demonstrably better job defending Primo Spears, who scored 18 when the teams met in Pittsburgh last month but missed each of his nine field goal attempts in the Reilly Center rematch. Kyle Lofton was the primary defender on Spears and also grabbed eight rebounds.
Bona was not entirely without its struggles offensively, producing just 15 points over the first 10 minutes. An 11-0 run from the 7:02 mark of the first half to the last media timeout before halftime, however, steadied SBU and widened its advantage to double-digits.
Jalen Adaway led all scorers with 21 points, making three 3-pointers and turning two steals into fastbreak baskets. Dominick Welch recorded 16 points, his eighth double-figure scoring output in the last nine games. Bona posted 81 points with Abdoul Karim Coulibaly notching as many points as Lofton and Jaren Holmes- six apiece.
The Bonnies were much more precise in the second stanza, shooting 59 percent (16-of-27) to bring themselves above 50 percent (31-of-59) for the game. They outscored Duquesne 48-22 in the paint, including a rim-rocking putback dunk from freshman Justin Ndjock-Tadjore, who registered his first four collegiate points.
“I told him before he got in the game, I said to just play hard and do everything as hard as you can,” Osunniyi said, with a caveat. “And I told him I wanted him to dunk on somebody.”
The Canadian did, in fact, dunk on someone. And the temporary role reversal between the seniors and rookies encapsulated how overwhelming the Bonnies were on Saturday.
“We’ve got a mature team, and they understand we’re coming to the end,” Schmidt commented. “And we’ve gotta be playing our best basketball at this time. There’s a sense of urgency and our guys are stepping up; we’re playing better as the season’s gone along.
“And we couldn’t have played better today. Duquesne’s struggling a little bit, but again: they played VCU tough; they played Davidson tough. Those guys don’t quit.”
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