The Result: The Bonnies got their asses kicked up and down the floor tonight by a really good Dayton team and lost by a final score of 78-61. SBU is now 1-1 in the league and should probably consider revisiting the whole pack-line thing before traveling to Richmond this weekend.

What You Should Know: First Half: I said I was going to track two things going into the game tonight: First, how many of Dayton’s three point attempts were contested…and by this I mean hand in the face, tough to make shots vs. “easier” wide-open type looks. Second was how many paint touches or entry passes Ndoye got in the game. At the half Dayton had attempted 11 threes, made 6 of them of which SBU only contested 3….SO, UD had gotten off 8 wide open threes…Ndoye at the half had a total of zero post touches/entries. Those were the Keys to the game going in and at the half it was: defend the three point line (nope) and go to the big man inside (nope). SBU had a TON of horrible, forced entry passes that turned into turnovers early which was the fault of the guards forcing things inside when they weren’t there. Dayton’s bigs gave Ndoye fits with their quickness and fronted him with great effectiveness. SBU had nine turnovers at the break…still SBU was shooting 55% but was down eight points due to the giveaways and the Flyers’ three point success. When Ndoye was out of the game, Dayton posted up Dyshawn Pierre like he was freaking Paul Pierce and he made by my count three post baskets on hook shots. This first half was everything you feared (their guards being too quick, their guards getting hot and us not being able to exploit a size advantage down low). A Jalen Adams miracle 30 footer dropped at the buzzer to cut the lead into the single digits but the first half was basically a stinker from the B and W. My big takeaway from the opening 20 minutes was that Dayton is just a better team, with better players and looked better coached. Yes, they are thin in terms of depth and have their warts but they can be really good too…..On to the second half…

Second Half: More of the same. Dayton continued to move the Bonnies’ defense, and penetrate and kick their way to wide open three pointers time after time after time. Ready for this stat? Wait, you need to read below in Nolan’s stat of the game to see it. This game was never a game after halftime to be honest. Dayton outclassed the Bonnies in every facet of the game.

You Knew It Was Over When: Honestly, I knew it was likely over when Dayton was moving the ball around with Spurs-like speed and getting and making open threes in the first five minutes. SBU HAD to defend the arc tonight - they didn’t and it cost them the game. In a single moment though, SBU had cut it to six early in the second half but a turnover led to a Dayton ‘and-one’ lay-up. That was followed by a poor long two pointer by Cumberbatch (after passing up a wide open three an Andell favorite) and a Dayton dunk. They were then up 11 with around 18 minutes left.

What Worked: Nothing. Honestly, I’m not wasting my time filling this section out of a 20 point blowout loss where the game was over around eight minutes into the contest from where I sat.

What Didn’t: Perimeter defense in general. Defending Dayton’s quickness. Foolish turnovers all night long, mostly from our guards.  I really cannot get too worked up over this game, Dayton is just a better team and it’s not really close. I thought SBU could win this game if they did an exceptional job with their perimeter defense and owned the paint but neither of those things happened tonight and it spelled a Bona loss. One of those nights you just tip your cap and move on.

Nolan’s Stat of the Game: In the second half Dayton attempted 11 three pointers, two of which, TWO, were contested. Dayton made seven of those eleven. A colossal failure for the Bonnies. For the game the Bonnies contested a total of five Dayton three pointers…Impossible to win playing that way. Dayton did exactly what they wanted and Archie Miller’s team put on a freaking clinic in the RC tonight. 

Bonnies’ Player of the Game: Posley finished with 17 points (5-10, just 1-6 from three) again tonight, though most of them were garbage points (not his fault) during a time when the game wasn’t close. Posley continues to make a push to become the league’s scoring champion (through two games!).

Tweets You should see: 

Foe of the Game: Dyshawn Pierre killed the Bonnies tonight, inside and out. He finished with 15 points on 7-11 shooting and scored on a number of post-ups against our smaller guards. I could have went with Sibert (22 points) or bench player/walk-on big man Bobby Wehrli who finished with a lifetime high nine points on you guessed it….three three pointers.

Good stats: 18-24 from the line. +6 on the glass.

Bad stats: For the love of God our bench is horrible. Don’t believe me? Dayton’s benched contributed 20 points tonight to our seven and those were in meaningless action. Dayton only shot 14-24 from three…14 freaking three pointers, you can’t beat anyone when they knock down 21 points worth of threes each half.  Ndoye was 1-4 from the line and did not get one, not one single post entry pass on the block the entire game (I watched with a pad charting). Dayton took him out of the game from the tip.

Ivan Kovacevic Unsung Hero of the game: No one.

What’s Up Next: SBU travels to Richmond on Sunday for an afternoon tilt with the Spiders who can’t score or rebound to any degree…having said that, it’s still going to be a tough road win to get for the boys as we’ve had issues south of the Mason-Dixon line before. Richmond is without question a lesser team than SBU (IMHO) but the Bonnies will still need to play disciplined basketball on the road to get a win. If we shoot it half decently and have a normal game on the glass and defensive ends we will beat the Spiders.