By Jonathan Sawyer
Sports Associate Editor
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team started off the game slow, but bounced back in the second half to pull out a 70-55 victory over the Saint Louis Billikens.
The Bonnies started off the game on an 11-0 run and it seemed as though this game was going to begin like when these two teams first met back on Jan. 17, when the Bonnies jumped out to a big early lead.
But, the Billikens were not going down without a fight, as they went on there own 11-3 run to take the lead 21-16. The Billikens would end the half after they grabbed the defensive rebound and passed it up court to Matt Neufeld, who drained the long two-point shot to extend their lead to 32-26 at the half.
Missing a lot of opportunities at the free throw line and at the basket hurt the Bonnies in the first half. They would come out in the second half by going on spurts of different runs, but never regaining the lead until eight minutes left in regulation, when junior guard Jaylen Adams, who ended the game with a team-high 20 points and dished out six assists, knocked down a jumper to put the Bonnies up 50-49.
Junior guard Matt Mobley dropped 19 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out five assists as part that helped the Bonnies close out the game on a 20-6 run.
The Bonnies played a 1-3-1 defense in the first and second half. When they returned to that defense in the second half, it set the spark to help the Bonnies end the game strong.
“My job, as I told our players, is try to give us the best chance to win and put them in the situation we thought we could be successful,” Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt said.
Billikens head coach Travis Ford told his team they need defend Mobley and Adams and hit a wall in the second half.
“[I’m] proud of our team, our team is fighting. I told our team we have such small room for error. We can’t lose Adams,” Ford said. “I told them if someone else is going to beat you then let them beat you, but not those two guys. First half we did a very good job, second half we lost a little bit of our concentration and they made us pay.”
Senior forward Denzel Gregg, who scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, said the team needs to play a more complete game and only playing the last part of the second half isn’t always going to be good enough.
“We didn’t come out ready to play right away and it kind of took us getting punched in the mouth to wake us up and once we woke up we got it going. It’s good we responded but you always want to play 40 minutes,” Gregg said.
Ford believes that the Bonnies are one of top four or five teams in the league and said his team can’t make mental mistakes against team of this caliber.
“I think St. Bonaventure is one of the better teams in our league. I told our team that and that’s out of respect for Mark and the job he does,” Ford said.
Amadi Ikpeze came off the bench for the Bonnies and netted six points and collected nine rebounds.
“Amadi is really coming along. He’s not fully there but he’s really giving us a big lift,” Schmidt said. “He’s physical inside and one of the reasons why we won tonight.”
Ikpeze said he believes his hard work in practice is translating to the game.
“I feel it starts with practice, I just want to practice hard everyday, pay attention and just know don’t waste a day,” Ikpeze said.
Schmidt said that you can’t teach size, but that Ikpeze has been progressively getting better throughout the season.
“From the first day he got her to now he’s a different player. His body is getting better, he’s in better shape, he’s learning,” Schmid said. “To me its just the tip of the iceberg, he’s going to be a really good player if he continues to have that work ethic.”
The Bonnies improve to 15-8 overall and 7-4 in the Atlantic 10. They will hit the road on Saturday to Washington D.C. as they take on the George Washington Colonials at 4:30 p.m. The game will be televised on NBC Sports Network.
sawyerjp15@bonaventure.edu
