(Only) Game of the Day: St. Bonaventure @ Davidson
St. Bonaventure vs. Davidson. Two teams with arrows pointing in different directions ready to clash near the Queen City on national TV. This has all the makings to be a premier showcase for the Atlantic 10 this season. The Bonnie in me just wishes it was taking place in Olean because I know that student section would be an absolute blast on a Friday night against a hot team, stomachs full of beer and Burton Burgers. But, I digress…
Let’s face facts — this SHOULD be the Peyton Aldridge show tonight. The Bonnies most glaring weakness is their bigs. I don’t see Josh Ayeni or Amadi Ikpeze putting up much resistance to Davidson’s consensus A10 First Teamer. This should be a game that Coach Mark Schmidt employs 37-40 minutes of LaDarien Griffin to try to contend with Aldridge. But, the senior forward is so talented that this should be the type of game he feasts for an easy double-double.
If Davidson has the obvious advantage in the front court, the battle of sharpshooting backcourts should be where the Bonnies make up the difference to give themselves a shot at a W. Senior guards Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley simply cannot wait until they’re down too much to wake up like they did (Mobley in particular) in Rhode Island last weekend. SBU is desperate for a good road win to get back into the race in the A10 and I expect the senior guards to set the tone early. As long as the Bonnies can contain Kellan Grady and Jon Axel Gudmundsson from going off from deep (something SBU has had issues with as of late), they should have the backcourt advantage. Easier said than done considering Davidson is a premier three-point shooting team in the nation.
Overall, this game comes down to containing Peyton Aldridge. If the Bonnies can hold him to under 20 points, they should be leaving North Carolina with the win. This should be a close one…and I’m going to bet on the Bonnies to turn things around with a nice road win.
Prediction: St. Bonaventure 75, Davidson 71
