FAIRFAX, Va. — For the first couple of weeks in January, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team was defined by the bad.
The numbers that stood out: Double-digit second-half deficits in each of its four road losses; dropping four out of five overall.
Beginning last week in the Reilly Center and continuing Wednesday in Northern Virginia, it’s the good that’s starting to once again stand out. And there was no greater good than the seven-minute stretch Bona had midway through the first half against George Mason.
In that one fiery span, Bona went from trailing by eight to leading by 14, embarking upon a 27-7 run that included a 10-for-13 effort from the field and eight 3-pointers.
Matt Mobley started it with a 3 at the 12:31 mark and finished it with a trey with 5:58 remaining. In total, he and Nelson Kaputo drained a combined eight 3-pointers on nine attempts in that span before finishing with career highs of 35 and 20 points, respectively.
In the end, that one big stretch led to more good: The Bonnies’ third-straight triumph and their first road victory of the Atlantic 10 season, a convincing 85-69 triumph.
“Nelson gave me even more confidence,” said Mobley, who drained seven 3s on the night, two off his own Bona record. “Once I saw Nelson knocking down shots, it made me want to knock down shots.
“We really wanted to get a road win, start the second half of our (A-10) season right, so we wanted to put it on them. Coach (Schmidt) said they’re the fourth-youngest D-I team in the country, so once we were up, we’ve got to be a veteran ball club and close the game out.”
Kaputo, whose minutes are often wavering, checked in at the 13:13 mark, mostly to give the Bonnies another shooter against the Patriots’ triangle-and-two defense. He made the most of his opportunity, splashing his first four 3s and finishing 6-of-9 from deep overall.
“I always have the confidence,” said the junior guard, whose previous career high was 15 against Maryland-Eastern Shore in November. “I know how much time I put into my game and I know I’m playing with a very talented backcourt and my minutes are going to be limited.
“Today, I got an opportunity to get a couple shots up early, they went down and I just started feeling myself a bit.”
Kaputo’s patience might be starting to pay off. A week earlier, he played 12 minutes and hit two key second-half 3-pointers in a win over Saint Joe’s. On Wednesday, he got 25 minutes and sparked a 49-point first half, which tied for the Bonnies’ largest first-half output on the season.
Have the Bonnies’ finally gotten their reserve point guard going?
“He’s practicing better,” Schmidt said. “He’s done a much better job. He gives another scorer when (teams) go triangle-and-two. When teams do that, someone’s going to be open for a jump shot, and Nelson has been good in that area. We need that third guy when they try to shut out Jay (Adams) and Matt.”
Bona moved to 5-0 against George Mason since the Patriots joined the A-10 in 2013-14, with all five of those victories coming by double figures. Included in that are three wins at EagleBank Arena by an average of 16 points.
How important was it for the Bonnies to beat the young Patriots, the sixth-lowest ranked team on their schedule in the RPI, for their first league road win of the year?
“We said (after losing to Davidson), we can’t look back, we’ve just got to look ahead,” Schmidt said. “Before this game, we had five more opportunities to win some games on the road. This was the first of five. Hopefully we can continue, but it was good to get the first one.”
Lost in his 35-point night was the fact Mobley pulled down 11 rebounds for his fifth career double-double. The senior guard’s previous career high was 34 last year against VCU, the same game he hit nine 3-pointers. He’s now only 21 points shy of reaching 1,000 points in only two seasons with the Bonnies.
Afterward, the Worcester, Mass., native was asked what he thought Wednesday’s win might mean for their big-picture NCAA chances.
“Every win from now is keeping our at-large hopes alive,” he said. “Me personally, I don’t think our record is good enough right now, buf if we run the table, we’ll have a pretty good shot, so we just want to win every game possible.”
On this night, Adams needed only five points for Bona to win easily. He did hand out eight assists for the second straight game, however, and had no turnovers in 30 minutes.
“It’s easy for me on nights like this,” he said afterward, citing the work done Mobley and Kaputo. “Games like this are fun for me.”
