By Harrison Leone
Sports Assignment Editor
The trees are bare, frost is in the air and night is coming early. It’s basketball season at St. Bonaventure.
Head Coach Mark Schmidt, in his seventh year at SBU, will look to bring the Bonnies back to Atlantic 10 prominence.
The lights glared sharply off the hard wood of Bob Lanier court as the Bonnies jogged onto the floor to begin their 2013-’14 season. The sound of raucous applause from a crowd of 2,726, including a standing-room-only student section, filled the Reilly Center for tip off. Even for an exhibition game against Division II Mansfield, it was clear to all present that the fans were more than happy to have their sport of choice back.
The faithful Bonaventure fans looked forward to a comfortable victory for the Brown and White in SBU’s only exhibition match of the year. Their opponents, while a decidedly smaller squad, gave the crowd pause in the early goings, cutting into the Bonnies’ early lead before knotting up the game at 14.
“When you’re playing a team that you think you’re better than, you can be a little more aggressive,” Schmidt said. “We want to create offensive off our defense, but you can’t get too crazy. You don’t want it to be a circus, and that’s how we kind of lost it there for a second.”
The Bonnies opened up the floodgates after this brief interruption by closing the half on a 29-10 run, entering the locker rooms leading 54-29. It was all Bonaventure in the second half as well, as the team cruised to a 102-57 victory.
“I think we got out what we needed to get out of the game,” Schmidt said. “Everyone played, everyone got their feet wet. We won. There were some positives. We shared the ball, protected it decently and got off to a good start. We lost it a little bit, and that’s something we have to learn from. I thought overall, the effort was there. We got a little sloppy at times, and we’ve got to continue to get better but it was a step in the right direction.”
Junior transfer Andell Cumberbatch stole the show in his St. Bonaventure debut. The East Orange, N.J. native buoyed the team in the first half, racking up 21 points on nine field goals, a total that equaled the shooting rate of the entire Mansfield team. Cumberbatch finished the game with a team-high 23 points, after sitting for most of the second half, to go along with his four rebounds and three steals.
“He did what we hoped he could do,” Schmidt said. “He can score, he can rebound and he’s got to get an IQ for the game. There’s room for improvement, though. He’s got to be a better defender, and he’s not going to score 23 points every game.”
Cumberbatch, who spent the last two seasons at Barton Community College, said despite his team leading performance, he saw elements of his game that he could work on.
“There were definitely spots where I could improve,” Cumberbatch said. “I have to keep trying to play good defense and distribute the ball to my team more often.”
Cumberbatch was active from mid-range and near the top of the key, but he showed his range as well, hitting two of his four attempts from behind the arc.
As a team, the Bonnies were sharp from the three as well, shooting 43 percent as a team.
Senior guard Matt Wright, who led the team with three threes on six attempts and finished with 16 points and 10 assists, said finding his shot early was the key to his success.
“Shooting is mostly confidence,” Wright said. “Shooting well early allowed me to get that confidence up. Offensively, I thought everything went well. If you can get open shots like we were able to, you will always have a chance to be successful.”
Joining Wright and Cumberbatch in the starting lineup were seniors Charlon Kloof and Marquise Simmons and junior Youssou Ndoye. Simmons led the team in rebounds with nine, and tallied 12 points. Kloof was five of six from the free throw line and tied for the team lead in steals with two. Ndoye grabbed two rebounds and got to the line twice in only eight minutes of action.
“Youssou has spurts, but he’s really got to do it on a consistent basis,” Schmidt said. “I wouldn’t give him an ‘A,’ but he played well.”
Even with Ndoye, a seven-footer who averaged 4.9 rebounds a game last season, on the bench for most of the contest, the Bonnies were able to control the boards, out-rebounding the Mounties 46-39, including 18 off the offensive glass.
Offering assistance on the glass to Simmons were junior transfer Chris Dees with five boards and sophomore forward Jean Yves Toupane, who corralled four missed shots in his 14 minutes of action.
“It doesn’t matter how big you are, it matters how big you play,” Schmidt said. “It was good for Jean to get his feet wet and get his confidence up.”
Sophomore swingman Dion Wright was the first man off the bench for St. Bonaventure. The Carson, Calif. native logged 20 minutes of play, scored seven points and squeezed four rebounds. With the departure of forward and team workhorse Demetrius Conger, Wright will play a large role in filling Conger’s spot at the forward position.
“He’s a big key to our team,” Schmidt said of his lanky, 6’7″ player. “He can bring energy. He did a good job offensive rebounding. He probably threw up a few shots he shouldn’t have, but he was active on the glass. He’s long, and he can slither in the paint. He’s a hard cover and works hard to do things better.”
The strength of the Bonaventure game plan came in their up-tempo, aggressive defensive attack. The suffocating defense held Mansfield star Joe Bell, who was named to the All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference team, to three of 14 from the field. The Bonnies also had 18 steals and forced 35 turnovers.
“Obviously, we’re not going to force 35 turnovers every night,” Schmidt said. “I thought we did a good job of creating turnovers and capitalizing on them.”
St. Bonaventure hits the court again tomorrow for their first regular season game of the year. The South Dakota Coyotes of the Summit League will come to the Reilly Center. South Dakota is led by interim Head Coach Joey James and anchored on the court by senior center Trevor Gruis, who was named to the pre-season All-Summit team.
Coach Schmidt said his team will have to improve its collective play to be ready for this matchup.
“Everything has to get better,” Schmidt said. “Our offense, our rebounding and our on-the-ball defense all have to be better. We need to be better next Saturday than we were out there today. Then we need to be better the next Monday than we were that Saturday. That’s the coaches’ job, and that’s the players’ job — to keep improving.”
