The quintessential ‘survive and advance’. In a game that saw Duquesne seemingly in command, St. Bonaventure made a late run to go and post a 64-59 victory. The second round A10 Conference Tournament game at Capital Bank Arena on Thursday saw the Bonnies improve to 22-10. Duquesne ended their campaign at 13-19. Numbers and notes…
Possessions: 64
Offensive Efficiency: St. Bona 100, Duquesne 92
Four Factors:
eFG Pct.- Duquesne 50, St. Bona 45
Ft Rate- Duquesne 23, St. Bona 18
OREB Pct.- Duquesne 34, St. Bona 24
TO Rate- St. Bona 11, Duquesne 28
Points of Emphasis:
Comeback. Coach Dru Joyce’s Dukes had a 34-25 lead at intermission. That nine-point difference increased as the Bonnies were looking at a 13-point deficit with 13 minutes to play. Then, Melvin Council did what veterans do. The senior guard ignited the Bona rally. Scoring, coming up with steals on defense and handing out assists. He did it all.
“Melvin (Council) willed us to win,” Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt told gobonnies.com. “That’s what your point guard needs to do. And I have said it from the very beginning, Melvin has it. He makes big shots, makes big plays.”
The stretch. The Duquesne lead was five points with just over three minutes left. Lajae Jones buried a corner three to cut the lead to one possession. Council scored in the lane to tie the game with just over two minutes to go. The Bonnies got the stops on defense, hit their free throws and proceeded to finish off a 13-1 run that sealed the verdict. Duquesne, who eliminated the Bonnies in last year’s semis en route to the championship, did not hit a field goal over the last 4-plus minutes.
Kenpom.com MVP: Lajae Jones. The junior forward scored 18 points sharing game scoring honors with teammate Melvin Council and Duquesne’s Maximus Edwards.
Duquesne’s other double figure scorers were Matus Hronsky with 11 points and Tre Dinkins who added 19.
Council did get the Bonnies Player of the Game WWE legacy belt.
Rebounding and turnovers. By Schmidt’s own admission “they dominated us on the glass.” The final count was 40-30. The Bonnies usually win points in the paint but that area was even at 24 points each. The difference was turnovers. “I thought we turned the ball over only seven times,” Schmidt said. “They turned the ball over 18. That was 24-4 (in Bona’s favor) points off turnovers. That was the difference.”
Notes. Duquesne had a slight 40-39% edge in field goal percentage.
In the rebounding department, Jacob Nekas of Duquesne led the way with 10 boards (four offensive). Noel Brown paced the Bonnies with eight.
In addition to his many accomplishments already discussed, Council drew six fouls-a game high.
Bonnies move on to the A10 quarterfinals for the 10th time in the last 11 years.
Bonnies are also 17-12 in A10 Tournament play under Mark Schmidt. They’ve won at least one tournament game in 10 of the 15 seasons they qualified for tournament play during Schmidt’s tenure.
Council had an A10 leading 65 steals during the regular season. The senior guard added four in Thursday’s matchup.
Bonnies will face VCU in the quarterfinals on Friday morning. The two teams split their regular season games, each winning at their home court. VCU dropped their last regular season game at home against Dayton. Prior to that loss Ryan Odom’s Rams won nine straight. They finished 15-3 in A10 regular season play.
“It wasn’t pretty, and as I told the guys in the locker room, it’s life. Life is not gonna be easy. You’ve got to deal with adversity and you’re going to bounce back. And we certainly did that today.” – Mark Schmidt
