DAYTON, Ohio — Jaren English, as usual, was remarkably candid … even when it meant being critical of his own effort.
The sophomore guard had just played arguably the best half of his fledgling Division I career, scoring 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting and representing one of the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team’s few bright spots in an 86-60 loss to Dayton inside UD Arena on Wednesday night.
For stretches, he seemed to be the only Bonnie on the same level as any of the No. 7 Flyers.
English had been detrimentally quiet in the first half, a step behind on defense and a non-factor on offense. It was a tongue-lashing during the break that gave way to the intensity and determination with which he played the final 20 minutes.
“(Coach Mark) Schmidt kind of got into me in the locker room,” he acknowledged. “He challenged me a bit, and I just responded. (Coach Steve) Curran talked to me, Coach Tray (Woodell) — they really challenged me coming to the bench.
“I missed an assignment on a play which (Trey) Landers got a 3, I was kind of bummed about it. I came to the bench, they talked to me, challenged me to be better, do better, so I just wanted to try to do that in the second half, and give my team a chance.”
English, who tied his career high with 17 points, is a legitimate Atlantic 10 starter. He’s averaging 11 points and four rebounds on the year. In the last two games, he’s scored 32 points on 60 percent shooting.
The Romulus, Michigan native is one of the limited positives to come from back-to-back 25-plus-point losses for the Bonnies — the first such instance of that in the 13-year Mark Schmidt era.
The others?
Bona did a good job of taking care of the ball against imposing defenses, committing just nine turnovers against both VCU and Dayton, and, for much of the first half Wednesday, it was able to hang with one of the best teams in the country in a rabid environment.
“He played really well in the second half,” Schmidt said of English. “He struggled in the first half. Jaren came out … just like we talk all the time, we’re not going to quit. And he fought, he made some big baskets. But we needed other guys to step up; we can’t just have one guy play.”
The latter sentiment is one of a handful of negatives born from losses of 86-60 and 91-63 over the last six days.
Few Bonnies rose to the occasion over the last two contests. Leading scorer Kyle Lofton was held to 17 total points on 5-of-17 shooting while third-leading scorer Dom Welch was limited to 12 points on 5-for-15 from the field.
Offensively, they never found a rhythm in either contest and struggled to find quality shots and create individually against those defenses. After rising to become one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the conference, Bona regressed to early-season form, connecting on just 6-of-32. On the other end, a defense that had been among the best in the A-10 also had a tough time, surrendering an average of 89 points on a robust 58 percent shooting.
Of course, many of those struggles can be attributed to the opponent.
VCU very rarely falls at home, especially when coming off a loss, and this year’s Flyers team might be the best the league has seen since that incredible Saint Joe’s group of 2003-04. Very few, if anybody, had these chalked up as Bona victories.
The absence of Osun Osunniyi, who’s missed the last two games with a concussion, also has plenty to do with it. In the 11 games in which the 6-foot-10 center has played at least 18 minutes, Bona has allowed an average of just 57 points. In the other eight games, it’s surrendering 75 points.
Consequently, it’s now 11-0 and 1-7 in those contests.
The Bonnies, though, even when at their best, such as in the 2017-18 campaign, have had these ugly stretches against the league’s top teams — especially away from home — and they’ve survived them.
Additionally, beginning with Saturday’s game against Rhode Island, which comes at home, their schedule becomes more favorable, with six of their next nine contests taking place in the Reilly Center, plus road games at cellar-dwellers Fordham and Saint Joe’s.
And English, who’s postgame interview Wednesday almost seemed to double as a public service announcement, had a message for anybody who’s thinking about jumping off the bandwagon after two bad losses in which the Bonnies were missing their most important player:
“We’re going to be fine.”
“Everybody that’s thinking about … we’ve lost two straight, we’re fine,” English said. “We’re going to get into the gym and we’re going to get better. We’re not going to harp on this game. We’re going to move on to the next one, we’re going to stay together as a team, as a brotherhood, we’re going to be exciting.
“If you guys realize … we were down (25-24 on Wednesday to Dayton); I feel like they were a little nervous, licking their chops, so I think we’re in a good spot and we’ll get better. We’re still learning, we don’t have our whole team. Once we do, (that’s when) we’ll start to get it going.”
(J.P. Butler, Bradford Publishing Company group sports editor, can be reached at jbutler@oleantimesherald.com)
