By CONNOR JACKSON

Special to the Era

The Bonnies won for the first time when trailing at halftime this season on Wednesday in their 73-72 home win against UMass.

Now the St.

Bonaventure men’s basketball team (20-10, 8-9) looks to finish their regular season with another A-10 victory against Davidson (16-14, 6-11) at 2 p.m. on Saturday (ESPN+, Bonnies Online Network, 100.1 FM).

They haven’t been doing well on the road as of late, after starting 5-0 in away games they have been 1-5 since.

But the Bonnies are in a position where seeding for the Atlantic 10 Tournament next week in Washington D.C. isn’t a big concern. They are locked into the No. 8 and No. 9 seed game, no matter what happens in their game against the Wildcats.

There are different scenarios that would affect who the Bonnies would play. Bona coach Mark Schmidt isn’t worried about it. “Whoever we are playing doesn’t matter,” Schmidt said. “They are all going to be capable of beating us, we are trying to win this game on Saturday and hopefully play well and take that into D.C.”

Davidson is trying to snap a three game losing streak, they are near the bottom of the standings, but they have three scorers who average 14 or more points a game, something that might challenge the Bonnies reliable defense.

6 foot 10 inch forward Reed Bailey leads the A-10 in scoring with 19.1 points per game, he also averages 6.2 rebounds and is in top 10 in the conference in assists (3.9 per game).“Bailey is a handful,” Schmidt said.

“He’s a four man playing the five. He creates matchup problems and takes guys off the bounce, he’s a handful.”

Forward Bobby Durkin (14.2 ppg, 6 rpg) and guard Connor Kochera (14 ppg) are other scorers to look out for. “They are really good players, but everything goes through Reed, he is like a point forward and he gets shots for those guys,” Schmidt said. “When Durkin and Kochera are shooting the ball well, they are really, really hard to guard.”

Despite having three top scorers, the Wildcats don’t score that well as a team. They rank 10th in the A-10, both in points scored and points allowed. St. Bonaventure’s 20th nationally ranked defense will hope to clamp down and win on that end of the floor.

One thing that Wildcats struggle to do offensively is that they can’t seem to get to the free throw line. They average 17 free throw attempts per game, placing them 283rd nationally.

But Davidson has experience within the program, something that isn’t some common in today’s college basketball. “They know the system,” Schmidt said. “The longer you are in a system, the better off you are going to be.”

Expectations for the Bonnies were high after going 12-1 through the non-conference and 2-0 in conference play.

But the Bonnies have had injuries that have set them back from seeing their full potential this season. They will continue to rely primarily on players like Melvin Council Jr., who averages 14.5 points per game and is sixth in the A-10 in assists with 4.1.

But other players are beginning to step into some bigger roles. Against UMass, redshirt freshman Duane Thompson got additional minutes in the frontcourt, scoring eight points and four rebounds.

“I thought the difference in the game was Duane,” Schmidt said. “Him getting eight points, four rebounds, and defending at the five.

He is undersized, he has never played it. I thought he was the key to the game.”

Maybe the Bonnies haven’t reached as high as they hoped this season, but a run in the A-10 tournament is still on the table. All it takes is for them to hit their stride at the right time.

“We won three out of the last four,” Schmidt said. “Hopefully, we can get this last one.”