St. Bonaventure seeks three-game sweep of Saint Louis in A-10 quarters

By CHUCKIE MAGGIO

It’s not as difficult to defeat a team three times in one season if you’re St. Bonaventure in the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

The Bonnies have completed three-game season sweeps during four of their last six conference tourneys, counting Duquesne (2021), George Mason (2019), UMass (2017) and Saint Joseph’s (2015) as thrice-vanquished foes. Saint Louis, who they defeated twice in the regular season, is their A-10 quarterfinal round opponent on Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C.

Bona defeated the Billikens twice in four days in February, forcing 18 Billiken turnovers to “steal” a road game in Missouri before holding off a late SLU push at the Reilly Center on Valentine’s Day. Osun Osunniyi rode roughshod over Travis Ford’s charges, totaling 33 points after making 15 of his 18 field goal attempts during the long weekend.

The Bonnies’ recent history against the Billikens also includes a win in last year’s A-10 semifinal in Richmond. Saint Louis did, however, close the regular season with a 69-65 victory over VCU which it led 41-24 at halftime. And Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt, whose teams have lost a conference tournament opener just twice since 2010, did not factor the recent series history into his thought process before departing for the nation’s capital on Wednesday.

“Throw the records out. This is a one-game season now,” Schmidt remarked.

The Billikens put the finishing touches on a sweep of their own by defeating La Salle 71-51 on Thursday.

Bonaventure point guard Kyle Lofton has outdueled Saint Louis counterpart Yuri Collins this season. Collins, who remains the NCAA assist leader with an average of eight per game, turned the ball over 14 times in the two games against SBU; Lofton personally turned him over twice at Chaifetz Arena. Bona scored 16 of its 68 points in Chaifetz off turnovers and followed that disruption up with 22 points off 17 SLU giveaways in the return trip.

As marvelous as Collins can be with the ball in his hands, he has committed 126 turnovers, the second-most in Division I. He turned it over five times in each of the last two regular season games.

Much of SLU’s success hinges on how well Gibson Jimerson, Collins’s favorite assist target, shoots from the perimeter. Jimerson made just two of his nine 3-point tries in the first meeting and two of five in the second. The All-A-10 Third Team honoree shot 28.5 percent from 3 against Bona and 46 percent against everyone else.

Bona led 71-56 with 9:34 remaining on Valentine’s Day but yielded a 23-10 Saint Louis run that thinned the margin to three points with 30 seconds remaining. Jordan Nesbitt had a chance to tie the game on SLU’s final possession but missed, after which Jalen Adaway iced the game with a free throw.

The Billikens responded to Bona’s 48-point first half with a 47-point second half themselves, proving that while SBU swept the regular season series, the teams are well matched.

“Really challenging, competitive games,” Schmidt described the meetings, before acknowledging that the previous winning streak “is not gonna have anything to do with what happens on Friday.”

“We’re familiar with everybody and they’re familiar with us,” Schmidt added. “No matter what happened in the regular season, the tournament is totally different. It’s a totally different game.”

Schmidt’s teams are built for the double-bye, the three-game sprint to a Sunday net-cutting ceremony. As is always the goal across college basketball, the Bonnies are also playing their best basketball at the end of the year with eight wins in their last nine games.

SBU’s 2012 A-10 title team won five of its last seven games to close the regular season, while last year’s squad won three of its last four. Schmidt is confident that his team is peaking at the right time.

“We’re playing pretty well. I think we’re getting healthier,” Schmidt assessed. “And now, hopefully we can put it all together on Friday at 2:30. That’s our whole emphasis right now, is trying to maximize our abilities and prepare as well as we can for Friday afternoon.

“Hopefully we’re prepared well enough and hopefully we play well enough to win.”