It was a tale of two halves. St. Bonaventure allowed a 12-point halftime lead to dissipate over the final twenty minutes. The result, a 68-64 road setback to Rhode Island. Wednesday’s game at the Ryan Center in Kingston, RI saw the Bonnies drop to 17-9 (5-8) while Archie Miller’s Rams improved to 16-8 (5-7). Numbers and notes…
Possessions: 64
Offensive Efficiency: URI 106, St. Bona 100
Four Factors:
eFG Pct. – St. Bona 55, URI 51
FT Rate- URI 33, St. Bona 15
OREB Pct. – URI 25, St. Bona 23
TO Rate- St. Bona 17, URI 20
Points of Emphasis:
Sweet start turned sour. Bonnies got out to a good start, using a pair of 8-0 runs to build a 12 point lead at intermission. Mark Schmidt’s group shot 50% and knocked down five three pointers (39% accuracy) to force the host Rams to play catch up. And they did.
The Bonnies came out ice cold, converting only five of their first 17 field goal attempts. That allowed Rhody back in the contest as the Rams shot 51% over the course of the second half after going 40% the first twenty minutes.
“We played hard; they made some plays at the end,” Schmidt told gobonnies.com. “We had some breakdowns but I thought our guys really competed…proud of our effort but we have to close games better.”
A David Green three pointer with just over three minutes remaining gave the Rams their first lead since 2-0. The Bonnies regained the lead on two Melvin Council free throws with just under two minutes to play. Bona held the slight edge until the final possession. Following a missed Bona layup, URI raced upcourt. Sebastian Thomas, who many felt might take the last shot, found Jamarques Lawrence alone in the right corner. Lawrence buried the three and converted a free throw as he was fouled on the shot. A full court desperation pass by Bona on the ensuing possession landed out of bounds.
“We had him (Thomas) going to his right and that’s what we wanted to do,” Schmidt said. “We broke down and helped from the ball side corner and you just can’t do that; that’s a cardinal mistake. We did that and got to the shooter late.”
Moore was out. Chance Moore was out due to a foot injury. Schmidt refused to pin the loss on that situation or use it as an excuse. “Being shorthanded without Chance, Noah (Bolanga) went in there and didn’t shoot the ball great but grabbed some rebounds,” Schmidt said. “Jonah (Hinton) made some from offensive standpoint he did a good job. We won’t use injuries as an excuse; it’s part of the game: next man up.”
Time of possession. In football yours truly finds this a virtually meaningless, at best misleading, metric. You can find many games a team ‘wins’ time of possession while coming up short on the scoreboard. The same scenario applies to ‘time with the lead’ in basketball. Winning the time with the lead looks nice on the stat sheet but doesn’t guarantee victory. Case in point: the Bonnies led for 36:05 of game time. At the end of the day one thinks Miller was not all that concerned about being on the short end in the time with the lead category.
Kenpom.com MVP: David Green. The URI senior forward scored 18 points, adding seven rebounds and three blocked shots. Jamarques Lawrence of URI was the game-high scorer with 20 points. Sebastian Thomas added 15, all in the second half, for Rhody.
Bonnies placed four in double-digits. Jonah Hinton led the way with 18. Melvin Counsel and Noel Brown both had 16 and Lajae Jones finished with 10.
Notes. Bonnies led 13-10 in points off turnovers and points in the paint (32-32). They were a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe while Rhody finished 11-17. Rams won the battle of the boards 32-31. David Fuchs of URI led the way with 10 rebounds while Noah Bolanga grabbed a career-high eight for Bona.
Shooting percentages saw URI hit on 46% of their tries while the Bonnies checked in at 44%. Rhody also had a 36-32% edge in three point shooting.
Rhode Island snapped a two game losing streak and will host La Salle on Saturday.
The Bonnies, currently on a three game slide, complete their New England swing with a visit to UMass on Saturday. Frank Martin’s Minutemen were defeated 77-68 by Davidson at home on Wednesday. They are currently 6-6 in A10 play.
“We have a 24-hour rule. Go back to practice and start working on UMass.”- Mark Schmidt
