ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — A week later, the mood was a bit more amicable before an afternoon practice inside the Reilly Center.
Entering that session last Wednesday, the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team was 1-5 and riding a four-game losing streak, its longest in four years. Today, it’s coming off back-to-back victories — a win over its biggest rival and its most impressive offensive showing of the year.
Its first winning streak of the season has seemed to re-energize a Bona group that had suffered a season’s worth of adversity by Thanksgiving. But it isn’t so much the victories, coach Mark Schmidt said, as it was the reintroduction of its heart and soul.
“Getting Courtney (Stockard) back has given us a boost,” Schmidt said of his senior forward, who’s averaged 18 points and five assists since returning from an offseason knee injury. “When you get one of your best players back, it takes pressure off those young guys. He’s somebody they can look to for leadership, so that’s helped …
“But we’re certainly not out of the woods. Courtney’s not where he needs to be. We’re relying on those young guys probably a little bit too much, but it’s good to get Courtney back, and hopefully we can get a few (other) guys back as we go forward here.”
The Bonnies (3-5) will soon go forward with the most difficult portion of their non-conference schedule — a Saturday matchup with nationally-ranked Buffalo followed by road games with Vermont, Northeastern and Syracuse. Before that, however, comes another tough test: tonight’s Franciscan Cup matchup with Siena (7 o’clock, WPIG-FM, WHDL-AM, ESPN+-live stream) at the RC.
Entering its now-annual matchup with the Saints (3-5), Bona is feeling cautiously optimistic about the direction in which it’s headed.
“We’re gelling,” junior guard Jalen Poyser said. “We’ve played well these last two games. Obviously, we have a lot more work that we can do, and get better. We still have a couple of guys who are hurt. When we get those pieces back, we’re going to be even stronger. (But) from the Cayman Islands to now, it’s been a big difference.”
A team in transition, the Saints return just one of their top six scorers from a team that went 8-24 a year ago. Additionally, they’re in Year 1 under new coach Jamion Christian, the replacement for the gregarious Jimmy Patsos, who resigned last spring amid allegations of verbally abusing players.
So far, though, they’re far from the rebuilding pushover they were billed to be when they were selected to finish last among 11 teams in the preseason Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference poll.
Siena has a road win over Atlantic 10 foe George Washington (69-61) and snapped a four-game losing streak with an impressive 67-64 win over Harvard, a Top 100 opponent, on Saturday. Even in losses, it hung close with the likes of Providence (77-67), Colgate (84-79) and Hofstra (94-86).
The Saints have length — with three starters at 6-foot-9 and another at 6-foot-6 — and talent.
Freshman point guard Jalen Pickett, a Rochester native who played last season with current Bona freshman Dominick Welch at Spire Institute in Ohio, has gotten off to a tremendous start, averaging 17 points and seven assists, the latter of which ranks No. 8 nationally.
Senior forward Evan Fisher, one of the few veteran holdovers from last year, is averaging 14 points and six rebounds — though he’s a question mark for tonight after injuring his ankle against Harvard. And 6-foot-9 forwards Sloan Seymour and Kevin Degnan are both contributing 10 points, with Seymour averaging three 3-pointers a contest.
“Perceptions are nothing; they don’t mean anything,” Schmidt said of the Saints’ preseason assessment. “They’re good. Pickett is playing really well. He has the ball in his hands all the time. Fisher’s playing well inside. They’ve got shooters that surround him. They’re playing with a lot of confidence, and they’re another rival. So, yeah, we’ve got our hands full …”
For Bona, the Saints have, in essence, become a fifth member of the Big 4, with the Franciscan Cup adding another element to the rivalry.
The Bonnies have won two straight and five of eight contests since the Franciscan Cup was established in 2010. Aside from last year, when Schmidt’s team cruised to a 75-55 triumph, just about every game has been close — with six of the previous seven decided by an average of four points.
That’s to be expected against a traditionally tough annual opponent, Schmidt said.
“They’re all close,” he said. “When you play good teams, they’re going to be good games. Niagara, Canisius, Buffalo down the road — they’re all good teams, well-coached and they’re going to be down to the wire.
“It’s been that way since I’ve been here. They’re all highly-contested, and the teams that make the plays at the end are going to win.”
How important is it for the Bonnies to maintain possession of the Cup and hold bragging rights over their sister school?
“Every game is a big deal,” Poyser said. “We come out every game thinking the same thing, and that’s to obviously get the W. Getting the Franciscan Cup is big for the school, the friars, it’s just good hardware to have in our building.”
Of the emphasis in a rivalry game, he added: “(Schmidt) lets us know that there’s an energy the crowd brings to those games. Apparently, our two schools are the only (Division I) Franciscan schools in the country, so you have a bunch of people that are going to come watch this game.
“It’s going to be hyped up.”
Said Schmidt: “It should be a battle.”
