By Dominic LoVallo
Assistant Sports Editor
St. Bonaventure’s club basketball team is six games into its season and is off to a below average start. The team is 1-5 to start its season, but is coming off a win against Syracuse University.
The Bonnies lost their first three games to the Ithaca College Bombers. The team played Ithaca in a triple header in the last weekend in January. The scores were 46-40, 64-54 and 51-49 respectively.
The Bonnies’ next three games all came against the Syracuse University Orange. The Bonnies avoided a clean sweep when they took down Syracuse in the third game of the three match-ups. The men lost the first two games by scores of 47-39 and 36-32. The men won their third game against Syracuse by a score of 65-56.
Head Coach and junior Amir Dastoori said he understands the team had a slow start, but he is already seeing the improvements from his players.
“It definitely started out a little rougher than we expected,” Dastoori said. “But I think from the first week to the second week we made a bunch of improvements and we’re starting to figure it out. The team chemistry is starting to mesh together more, and it’s kind of a rough style when you’re playing back to back to back, so just getting our legs warmed up a little more and running and we can be successful.”
Team captain and senior guard Kevin Keller recognized his opportunity to play organized basketball for one final season.
“It feels really good to know I’m playing organized basketball for a little bit longer,” Keller said. “It’s really fun just playing with these guys, and we’re really excited because the season just started, and we got everything rolling.”
Senior guard Ben Marcus said he and his teammates have been more skilled than their opponents so far.
“I think we have the most talent out of any team we have played, but we got to work on working as a team, getting our plays set up better and just playing harder in all three game series which is vital to our success,” Marcus said.
Senior forward James Thompson said he knows this is his senior season and wants to really cherish his final season of Bonnies’ basketball.
“Just getting the most of the season and enjoying every minute of it (is important), because you never know when it’s going to be done,” Thompson said.
Keller said he still believes his team has the chance to be attending Nationals this year, and the slow start came from being a newer team.
“We started off pretty slow, but I still feel that we can get to Nationals and we’ll see when we get there,” Keller said. “But we’re getting better every week, and it’s showing in our games.”
The team will get the opportunity to prove its enhancements when it takes on the Cornell University Big Red in its upcoming three-game series on a date to be announced.
