ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Jaren English wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as a wake-up call.
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, to be sure, doesn’t need to be reminded of just how crucial these late-season games are to its chances of securing a double-bye and its March momentum as a whole.
He was, however, willing to call what the Bonnies have encountered over the last week as a “learning lesson.”
Presented with an opportunity to all but clinch the No. 4 spot, Bona instead jeopardized those chances by dropping a pair of games — home against Duquesne and at La Salle — it was expected to win.
The good news for coach Mark Schmidt’s team is that it still controls its Atlantic 10 Tournament destiny, meaning two wins in its final two games would guarantee it at least fourth. The more troubling news is that, after back-to-back losses, it now has almost zero room for error.
And that’s the lesson Bona will bring into the first of those must-have games: Tonight’s Senior Night rematch with 13th-place Saint Joseph’s (7 o’clock, WPIG-FM, WHDL-AM, ESPN+-live stream) inside the Reilly Center.
“IT WOULDN’T be a wake-up call … I think more so a learning lesson,” said English, whose team sits tied with Saturday’s opponent, Saint Louis, for fifth in the league standings, a half-game behind Duquesne, which topped VCU in overtime on Tuesday night. “Most definitely, just because we’ve got to come to play every game. You can’t have any mistakes, you can’t have certain drop-offs.
“You’ve got to come to play every game with the same intensity, with the same fear that we could lose at any moment, any game. That’s a learning piece for us to keep moving forward, especially as we try to chase this A-10 championship.”
Bona (18-11, 10-6) will begin the night by honoring lone senior Amadi Ikpeze, the Buffalo product and lone holdover from the team that won a school-record 26 games and reached the NCAA Tournament in 2018.
Ikpeze is set to pass Demitrius Conger for sixth place on the program’s career games played list at 119. Only two senior classes have won more games in a Bona uniform than in his four years — the 2018 and ‘19 groups.
The 6-foot-10 center will always be able to say he started the Bonnies’ 65-58 NCAA Tournament victory over UCLA, the program’s first in the Big Dance in 48 years.
Bona hopes to close the night by nabbing the first of two needed wins, securing another season sweep (Schmidt’s team topped the Hawks 74-56 at Hagan Arena on Feb. 11) and ending this mini-swoon.
What’s the mindset now that they’ve officially reached must-win mode?
“Stay the course.”
“We didn’t do what we were supposed to do in these last two games. We didn’t finish,” English acknowledged. “We didn’t come to play like we should have. But those games are in the past now; you can’t dwell on them.
“We’re just going to try to go into practice today, same intensity, pick it up even more, try to get back to the level we were at and just stay ultimately positive. This is getting close to crunch time. We still control our destiny, so we’re going to try to win these next two games and just keep playing hard and go into it as a family. Regardless of the situation, we’re going to be a family in the end.”
Nearly a month ago, this matchup featured a Joe’s team that had yet to win its first conference game. In that one, the Bonnies shook off a poor first half (and a 34-31 deficit at the break) to outscore the Hawks 43-22 over the final 20 minutes for a business-like 18-point victory.
The rematch will come against a Hawks group that hasn’t rolled over despite its 6-23 (2-14) record.
Since falling to Bona, Joe’s has picked up it first two league wins, including a stunning 73-72 home victory over Davidson that came without the A-10’s leading scorer, junior guard Ryan Daly (20 points per game), and was competitive in losses to George Mason (62-55) and Saint Louis (76-63).
Despite being a near-double-digit favorite, Bona doesn’t expect its penultimate regular season game, and potentially its last of the season in the RC, to be easy.
“It’s taken time for them to adjust to a new coach and a new system,” said Schmidt, whose team has won four-straight and 11 of the last 12 over Joe’s. “They’ve got young guys, they’re playing with more confidence. I think they’re doing everything better — they’re defending better, they’re rebounding better, they’re playing better offense.
“They played really well against Fordham last game (a 73-69 victory). When they’re shooting the ball from the perimeter, if they’re hitting them, they make it really difficult on you.”
The Bonnies understand that, for a second-straight season, the final double-bye might well be decided in their season finale against Saint Louis, which will be in action at George Mason tonight.
But before they can worry about the Billikens, they need to first take care of Daly, one of the A-10’s best players, who scored 21 in the teams’ first meeting, second-leading scorer Cameron Brown, who scored 24 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds remaining against Davidson, and the Hawks.
“Right now, forget about Saint Louis,” Schmidt said. “That’s down the road. We’re worried about Saint Joe’s, and trying to do the best job in preparing so we can play well against Saint Joe’s. We’ll worry about the next game on Thursday morning. We’re just trying to get our 11th (conference) win, get off a two-game losing streak and play well for Amadi on Senior Night.”
