RICHMOND, Va. — The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, as a driven and displeased No. 1 seed, wasn’t going to be tested.
A 40-19 halftime advantage and 45-23 lead early in the second half had suggested as much.
Until, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it was.
By the 13:42 mark, the promise of a blowout victory had been reduced to a tenuous 10-point lead. During the ensuing timeout, after a Toby Okani dunk had made it 47-37, things became even more uncertain as both benches cleared in front of the Duquesne basket, a minor scuffle ensued and Bona was the one hit with the technical foul.
Facing its first adversity of the contest, coach Mark Schmidt’s team responded in much the same way it has all winter — to the pandemic, to a myriad of canceled and postponed games, to its lone four losses:
It regrouped and came back stronger.
Osun Osunniyi was tremendously productive, totaling 18 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and three blocks and all five starters scored in double figures as top-seeded Bona dispatched No. 9 Duquesne, 75-59, in an Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal on Friday inside VCU’s Siegel Center.
THE BONNIES (14-4) either moved a step closer to securing their at-large position in the NCAA Tournament or solidified their spot, depending on which “expert” you listen to. More importantly, they advanced to today’s semifinals, where they’ll meet fourth-seeded Saint Louis (6 o’clock, CBS Sports-TV) for the right to play in next Sunday’s title contest.
“(Coach) just told us to keep our composure,” Osunniyi said of the message in that timeout, after the teams returned to their benches and order had been restored. “”We knew that they were going to make a run, they’re a good team. So while they were figuring it out, Coach just told us to relax, play loose, play to win, and we got our composure back and played our game.”
Assessed Schmidt of the result, “We didn’t come here to go 1-0; we came here to go 2-0 and now we’re halfway there. Now we gotta go back, get some rest and hopefully we can play better (Saturday).”
Still up 20 with 15:29 left, Bona looked as if it wasn’t just adding to its postseason resume, but attaching an exclamation point to it. But then Duquesne began pressuring full court, and Bona admittedly didn’t handle it very well.
Schmidt’s team committed four turnovers over the next two minutes, and the Dukes (8-9) capitalized, embarking upon a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to 10. They then added the two technical free throws after the timeout to make it 47-39.
BUT FOR Bona, already angry after a regular season-ending loss to Dayton four days earlier, that only added fuel to its metaphorical fire. It responded with an 11-2 push, highlighted by dunks from Jaren Holmes (14 points) and Osunniyi and a 3 from Dominick Welch (18 points, 4 treys) to put the game away.
“I thought we lost some focus,” acknowledged Schmidt, whose teams have reached at least the semis in each of the last three A-10 Tournaments. “We got lackadaisical, loose with the ball.
“We have an experienced team that understood that, for that five or six minutes, they didn’t play very well. They needed to change, we needed to get back to defending and taking care of the basketball; we did that. We’ve got good players that understand what it takes to win. They lost focus but … they got it back”
For any trouble it encountered, however, Bona had already mostly done enough to weather it.
And it created that early separation by doing the things it does best.
Bona controlled the inside, holding a big 50-30 edge in the paint. It generated tons of offense off its defense, scoring 25 points off turnovers, including 17 in tone-setting first half. It grabbed 15 offensive rebounds, leading to 17 second-chance points.
At the center of it was Osunniyi, who cleaned up at the rim with an array of putback dunks and layups and a couple of alley-oops.
“(DUQUESNE’S Michael) Hughes tries to block everything and he’s really good at it,” Schmidt noted, “so the emphasis was, when he went to block it, we want to have backside rebounding. We did a good job of throwing some lobs and ‘Shoon did a really good job of going to the weakside and putting down the misses.
“Hughes is a terrific defensive player, but ‘Shoon did a good job … and from a defensive standpoint, as well.”
Said Osunniyi, who once again anchored a defense that surrendered 60 points or fewer, of the game-long jolt he provided: “It gets me going. I pride myself on defense, so if my defense is going, whenever I get a putback dunk, it’s going to energize everybody.
“I like bringing energy to my team. Whatever it takes to get my team going, whatever it takes to get a win, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Jalen Adaway and Kyle Lofton added 12 and 11 points, respectively for Bona.
In the end, it not only bounced back from that celebration-ruining loss to Dayton, it beat the Dukes for a third time on the year, and saved its most convincing effort of the three for Friday morning.
And now, it’s one win from playing in its second A-10 championship game in the last three years. That opportunity comes tonight against the Billikens, which beat Bona in the 2019 title game and handed it a 70-59 loss back on Feb. 6 inside Chaifetz Arena.
“I think our guys did a really good job of being able to turn the page and refocus on the task at hand, and the task today was Duquesne from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.,” Schmidt said. “And now, we’ll move on (to Saint Louis).”
Said Osunniyi, “You never want to lose games, but in a way, it’s a positive. It allowed us to refocus, get our mindset ready for this tournament and do what we can try to do to win games. We won this one; we’ve got another one (today).”
