It’s only three games into the season, but the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team might already be demonstrating how difficult it will be to duplicate the magic from last year.
For the second-straight game, the Bonnies were within striking distance with under a minute remaining. They’d been in this situation time and again last season, and essentially thrived in it, going 7-1 in games decided by five points or fewer.
But for the second-straight game in 2016-’17, they let it get away.
In its first game of the three-day Lone Star Showcase at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, Texas, Bona overcame a 17-point first-half deficit and season highs in both turnovers and fouls to take a 62-60 lead on a Denzel Gregg dunk with 2:55 remaining. Ultimately, though, it couldn’t finish the comeback, falling to Arkansas-Little Rock, 68-65.
For Bona (1-2), which lost to a close one with Florida on Thursday night, here’s how the final, fateful sequence went:
In a two-point game with 1:34 remaining, Jaylen Adams missed one of the two free throws that would have tied the game. Twice in the final minute, the Bonnies got the stop they needed, but couldn’t corral the rebound. In both instances, UALR was fouled and made both free throws to extend its lead to three.
Down three in waning seconds, a desperation game-tying three-pointer from Adams bounced out.
Bona made a valiant effort to come back on a good Little Rock team, one that returned most of its contributors from a group that went 30-5 last season and beat Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In the end, however, it couldn’t fully overcome an unsightly first half, 16 turnovers over the first 28 minutes and 26 fouls.
“It was a disappointing first half, first 15 minutes,” said coach Mark Schmidt, whose Bonnies will meet Central Michigan tonight at 6 o’clock in the second leg of the round-robin style showcase. “We turned the ball over way too many times, and that’s been an achilles heel for the first three games. But we fought back. I’m proud of the effort.”
Big man Lis Shoshi made 12-of-14 at the line and had 16 points and eight rebounds while leading returning scorer Marcus Johnson Jr. had 16 points and five boards for the Trojans (3-1), who will meet Pepperdine tonight at 8:30. Adams had 18 points on 4-for-11 shooting while Matt
Mobley had 15 and LaDarien Griffin a career-high 11 for the Bonnies.
Aside from their free throw shooting (they went 24-of-34 at the line), the Trojans had two key buckets to stay afloat down the stretch — both from Kemy Osse. With 5:52 left, the senior guard hit a 3 while being fouled and made the free throw to give his team a 58-53 lead. With Bona ahead by one with two minutes left, he drilled a fallaway 3-pointer to put UALR back out front.
“We had a breakdown when Osse hit the shot in the corner and we fouled him,” Schmidt said. “They had two four-point plays (on the night). I’m not sure if we gave up a four-point play last year at all.
“Osse hit a big shot at the end there, but it’s … we turned the ball over too many times, and if you turn the ball over like that, you’re not going to win.”
Limited to 18 minutes due to foul trouble, Gregg came up big down the stretch for the Bonnies, collecting six-straight points to bring them from down six to up two (62-60). The last bucket was the highlight, an alley-oop dunk off a lob from Adams.
Bona, as a team, did a fine job rallying back from a 10-point (38-28) halftime deficit, outscoring the Trojans 15-3 early in the second half to take a 43-41 lead halfway through the period.
What was missing were the ingredients that led to many of those 22 victories last season: ball possession (it had a big turnover with 2:18 left in a tie game), key defensive stops and the ability to close. Last year, Adams hit a couple of big shots late, most notably at home against Saint Louis and on the road vs. Dayton.
The junior guard missed the potential go-ahead 3-pointer with a minute left vs. Florida and missed a tough shot with four seconds left on Monday. Bona went 3-for-16 from 3-point range against UALR and never found an offensive rhythm.
“We turned the ball over,” Schmidt lamented again. That’s part of not getting shots. You can’t have eight assists and 17 turnovers. It needs to be just the opposite. That’s an area need to improve in.”
Tonight, Bona gets a CMU team that beat Pepperdine, 88-77, on Monday. The Chippewas (4-0) have two starters back from a team that went 17-16 and lost in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament last year. They also have a transfer in Marcus Keene, who went for 36 points (14-for-22 shooting) vs. Pepperdine.
“It’s good and bad,” Schmidt said. “You get that taste out of your mouth; (we have) less than 24 hours to get ready. Hopefully we can come back and play a much better game tomorrow night.”
