The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team holds one of the top scoring defenses in the nation, 17th out of 355 teams through Monday.
But Bona’s average of 63.1 points allowed — bolstered by holding eight opponents under 60 in non-conference play — is on an uptick after two straight losses, first allowing 73 in a road loss to Saint Louis and then 83 in an overtime heartbreaker to La Salle on Saturday.
Both the Billikens (13-for-33) and the Explorers (13-for-34) scored 39 points from the 3-point line against Bona.
A-10 opponents are scoring 74.25 points per game against the Bonnies after non-conference opponents scored just 59.6 per game.
“We’re playing better teams. Better one-on-one players,” Bona coach Mark Schmidt said. “We’re playing Atlantic 10-caliber players, so it’s not going to be as good, but just like anything we’ve got to keep the ball in front of us, we’ve got to make sure that we’re … defending our yard and getting into the gaps and making sure that we’re not getting beat for 3s, drive and kicks, and we’ve got to do a better job on the backboard.”
But defending also starts on the offensive end for Bona, needing to avoid turnovers. La Salle scored 27 points off 14 Bona turnovers on Saturday. That’s a statistic Schmidt’s team can’t afford to repeat as it concludes a two-game homestand Wednesday night against Richmond (7 p.m., YES Network/ESPN+) at the Reilly Center.
“Against La Salle we turned the ball over too many times,” Schmidt said. “It wasn’t really our halfcourt defense, it was more turning the ball over and getting numbers. So we’ve got to have better ball security. But in terms of just the half court, doing a better job of keeping the ball in front of us.”
An 0-2 week sent Bona’s metrics down, damaging its hopes of an at-large NCAA Tournament bid, falling from 51st before the SLU game to 70th after La Salle in the NET and falling out of the group of teams receiving votes in the AP Top 25 poll.
But the Bonnies aren’t alone in slipping up in the A-10: Saint Louis was the last undefeated team in the conference at 3-0 before losing to VCU Tuesday night. All 15 A-10 teams have at least one loss, and nine have two or more, including previously ranked Dayton (1-2).
“That’s how it is. That’s how conference play is,” Schmidt said. “No one’s going to go undefeated and you just try to protect your home court, which was disappointing the other day. It’s so hard to win on the road. But it’s conference play. Anybody can beat anybody, no matter where you’re picked, what people think about you. The team that plays the best, the team that plays the hardest that day is going to win and that’s been proven since I’ve been in this league.”
Bona center Noel Brown will look to continue the most consistent stretch of offensive play in his career, having scored in double-figures the last seven games. He’s averaging 13.3 points per game with excellent field goal (61.9) and free-throw (84.1) percentages.
“That’s a big part of our offense is going inside when they don’t double-team and it’s one-on-one, and he’s done a good job when he’s been double-teamed kicking it out,” Schmidt said. “I think the guys are looking for him and he’s got to the foul line, he made 10 out of 12 (against La Salle). So he’s being aggressive and that’s what we need. We need offense inside; I’m a firm believer you play inside out and Noel’s doing a good job for us so far.”
Richmond senior guard DeLonnie Hunt, underwent surgery for a broken foot on Tuesday, the school announced, with an expected eight-week recovery period. Hunt leads Richmond per-game in scoring (16.8 points), minutes (35.5), assists (2.9) and steals (2.2).
On the injury front for Bona, point guard Dasonte Bowen remains out with a foot injury having missed the last seven games and Jaxon Edwards is likely to pursue a medical redshirt for his groin injury.
The Bona-Richmond game features the two longest-tenured coaches in the A-10: Chris Mooney in his 20th season with the Spiders, Schmidt in his 18th at Bona. The two coaches rank fourth (Mooney, 177) and fifth (Schmidt, 160) all-time in A-10 wins.
“He’s done a wonderful job since he’s been there,” Schmidt said of Mooney, known for running the Princeton offense. “He’s a great coach, a better guy. So he really represents our conference in the best way possible. He’s a really good coach, he runs really good stuff and they play on the other end as well.
Mooney’s Spiders earned the No. 1 seed in last year’s A-10 Tournament, but were upset in the quarterfinals by Saint Joe’s. Hunt was the only returning starter from that team. Over nearly two decades facing off with Mooney, planning for the Xs and Os hasn’t changed much for Schmidt, but the players certainly have.
“When you scout, even when you look at Richmond, (you’re like), ‘man, who are these guys?’” he said, answering a question on how the A-10 has changed over 18 years. “It’s like every year it’s just different, where in the past, guys stayed in the Atlantic 10 for three, four, five years. So you knew everybody. Now the scouting is more challenging because you don’t know personnel, most guys have five, six, seven different guys. But there’s good coaching, there’s good players, there’s good venues. I don’t think anything has really changed other than the recruiting part of it. Coach Mooney’s running the same thing that he ran when I first started here 18 years ago. Coaches aren’t going to change, it’s just recruiting has changed and that’s going to continue to change.”
