ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Kyle Lofton was trying to get his teammate to laugh.
A couple of feet away, outside the visiting locker room, Dominick Welch was being asked about the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team’s 61-49 come-from-behind victory over George Mason on Wednesday night. He did his best to stifle his laughter as Lofton attempted to be a distraction in the background.
On this night, the Bonnies had more than enough reason to have some fun. They’d not only rallied from 15 down on the road to win, but put themselves in a pretty good spot coming back home.
“I think we’re in a good position,” Lofton said minutes earlier. “You can’t ask for nothing else — 2-0 (on the road to open the Atlantic 10 season). We go back home for two, so that will be good. (We) play Fordham, so we’re just worried about Fordham right now, and get back to work tomorrow.”
Yes, Bona (10-5, 2-0) has done an admirable job of not just putting a 1-4 start firmly in the rearview, but reasserting itself as a team that intends to play for a “double bye” and more in the conference tournament.
Coach Mark Schmidt’s team has won nine of 10, including three of four on a road swing that began before Christmas and ended a week after New Year’s. It’s 2-0 in league play for the first time since 2015-16, which also happened to be the last time it won its first two A-10 road games.
It knows it can’t rest on its laurels, however. Now comes the challenge of maintaining that mojo, beginning with today’s matchup with Fordham (2 o’clock, WPIG-FM, WHDL-AM, ESPN+-live stream) inside the Reilly Center.
“ … to be able to start and steal two on the road, that’s a positive,” said Schmidt, whose Bonnies are back home after a season-long 24-day gap between RC games, “but now we have to go back home, and we can’t just get relaxed and say, ‘alright, since we’re home, we’re going to win.
“We can’t play like we did in the first 15 minutes and expect to win against Fordham. We’ve got to keep that momentum. But we have to understand what it takes to win games, and it’s not easy.”
The task today: to avoid the potential landmine that is the perennially cellar-dwelling Rams.
Bona has had little issue with that over the last decade, winning seven-straight and 14 of the last 16 in the series, with those victories coming back by an average 16 points. Facing a Fordham team (6-8, 0-2) that currently ranks last in the league (No. 266), per KenPom — and one that was chosen to finish in the basement again this year — it will be expected to all but cruise again this afternoon.
Schmidt, though, provided two reasons why Bona will be expecting a battle:
A year ago, the Rams rallied from a 21-point deficit to make it a four-point game (56-52) with three minutes remaining before the Bonnies pulled out a 71-62 win in Rochester. On Sunday, down three of their top scorers — guards Antwon Portley (11 points) and Erten Gazi (9 points) and forward Chuba Ohams (11 points, 8 rebounds), all of whom are questionable for today — they gave La Salle everything it could handle in an eventual 66-60 loss.
For as much as it’s become one, this isn’t a sure thing, Schmidt maintained.
“We’re St. Bonaventure. There’s no automatic wins,” he said. “We’re not Duke. Our guys understand, in the Atlantic 10, if you don’t play well, no matter if you’re home or away, no matter who you’re playing, you’re going to lose. So we have to make sure that we’re ready to play.”
The Rams, who have played just one true road game on the season (in last week’s A-10-opening 64-46 loss to VCU) have so far been defined by an interesting dynamic: Coach Jeff Neubauer’s team has been strong defensively, leading the A-10 (and ranking No. 21 nationally) in scoring defense at 60.4 points per game. It’s one of the worst teams offensively, though, ranking 340th (of 350 teams) at 60.8 points per game.
Much of that, Schmidt said, has to do with pace. Some of those defensive numbers might also be the product of what was the A-10’s weakest non-conference schedule. None of that will change how the Bonnies intend to play, however.
“We have to defend, we’ve got to get back in transition, force a 5-on-5 game, do a good job of trying to keep the ball above the foul line,” Schmidt said. “We’ve got to push the ball, try to get below the foul line.
“They’re a good defensive team — their numbers are better than ours, so (we have to try) to get offense off of our defense. They do a good job in the halfcourt defense; hopefully we can get some easy stuff in transition. (But Neubauer) does a good job with them on both the offensive and defensive ends. They know their strengths and they play towards them.”
With Portley, Gazi and Ohams sidelined, Fordham was led by guards Ty Perry and Josh Colon and forward Ivan Raut (18 points) against the Explorers. Guard Jalen Cobb, who had a team-best 12 points in the teams’ last meeting — a 74-53 Bona triumph in the Bronx — is also back this season.
Bona, though, is preparing as if the Rams will be at full health.
“That’s how we approach every game,” said Schmidt, whose own starting guard, Jalen English, remains questionable after missing the last two games while in concussion protocol. “We’re not worried about who’s not playing, we just approach it like everybody is going to play and we’re going to guard them accordingly.”
