The Result:  Bonnies lost 53-55 to UMass.

What You Should Know:  After an hour of rumors that Jay Adams was out with a broken hand for the season the Bonnies took the floor with #10 in uniform. Adams apparently has a broken finger and will have surgery tomorrow (at least, that’s what two have told me…SBU says that’s not the case and it’s just jammed.  You can decide what’s real and what’s not, I’m not sure).

The Bonnies got off to an ugly start in this one trailing 5-0, by the under 16 media timeout the teams were a combined 2-12 from the floor (think total opposite of VCU). SBU did however turn it around, a 9-0 run fueled by two Andell Cumberbatch three pointers helped the Bonnies grab a lead. Cumberbatch had a chance to make it 9-5 but missed a one foot lay-up (no idea how) and UMass wound up cutting it to one at the under 12 media. Neither team was shooting it well and both were turning it over at a high rate, esp. the big men who were faced with double teams. Out of the under 12 the Bonnies got buckets from Alston and Dees (wow!) and they continued to take dumb three pointers in transition…Posley mostly. We’ve said the team would live and die with his shooting and he came out out in the opening half and took some dumb shots. Ndoye had a dunk blocked, the Bonnies turned it over again and by the under eight timeout it was 15-14 Bonnies following a Taqqee lay-up (called goaltending…if you’re counting at home that six bench points already….). Still, the Bonnies were playing ugly, dumb basketball taking poor shots and turning it over way too. At the under four media it was 22-21 UMass. Posley was sitting with two fouls, Dion Wright and Youssou had done nothing…SBU had 10, yes 10 turnovers 15 minutes into the game. Four them coming from Ndoye who was having a nightmare half. UMass’ halfcourt trap was giving SBU all sorts of problems. Without the production of Youssou and Posley SBU was honestly lucky to be down just a point 16 minutes into the contest. At that time only Cumberbatch had made more than one field goal. Posley-Wright-Ndoye were 2-9 from the field with three and change left. By the time the first half ended UMass had taken a 30-23 lead. SBU literally could not have played any worse offensively, before a Posley jumper at the buzzer SBU went almost five minutes without scoring. Some fantastic first half stats: UMass 52% field, Bonnies 34%. 11-10 Turnovers, Bonnies -1. UMass 9-10 FT, SBU 1-2. Posley-Wright-Ndoye were 3-12 from the floor five six points…they have to have a big second half right?

Ian Says: This was exactly the type of game I honest to God expected SBU to play through one half…this had “letdown game” written all over it and the Bonnies came out flat as a Patriots football and could not throw it in the ocean…hell, they couldn’t make a post entry post (Ndoye had five turnovers at the break and two points). If you thought SBU was going to come out and steamroll UMass after the last two wins you don’t know this team…they don’t make any damm sense. They lose games they’re favored in and win games no one thinks they can. And so it goes….onto the second half…I’m four beers in due to this teams’ mess at this point. Brother Shane predicted this morning we’d lose tonight and beat Dayton, at this point that made a lot of sense to me.

At the first media timeout in the second half the Bonnies had cut the lead to just a point after a Cumberbatch lay-up and a Jay Adams three pointe helped cut into the lead…the offense was showing signs of life. The Bonnies were doing a good job turning UMass over and getting stops and scoring on some run-outs. The steam in this game SUCKED by the way didn’t it? I was getting choppy video all night long. By the under 12 the Bonnies had a six point lead but it should have been mored. A Posley three pointer rimed out and and SBU threw away a fast break only to have to foul UMass on the other end of the possession (it was another Ndoye turnover). When the under eight timeout came it was 48-45 with 6:11 left I’m honestly debating just checking the final score at 9:30 the steam is so unwatchable on my computer with a freeze every 4 seconds or so. I’d rather not watch a game at all then watch it like this. Under four, Bonnies up six…Jay Adams missed a wide open three that could have put us up nine…would have been huge. Let’s go to the under four….

I can’t deal with the steam anymore (certainly not going to only Radio it), sorry…going to just check the final score at like 9:15….

Lost 55-53. Not going to write up much else since I literally could not watch the last four minutes off the game. I heard Cumberbatch missed a would-be-game winning three with seconds left. Glad I didn’t see it because I would have put my hand through a wall honest to God.

Per the BVOnline….

“The Bonnies had possession up by one with 22 seconds left when in bounder Andell Cumberbatch had a mis-communication with Marcus Posley, which resulted in a turnover. UMass took full advantage, swinging the ball to Jabarie Hinds for the go-ahead three-pointer. With no timeouts, Bonaventure had to go the length of the floor and got the ball into the hands of Cumberbatch, who missed a three. Youssou Ndoye had a chance to tie the game with a tip-in when the ball went off the iron, but missed as time expired. The Minutemen celebrated as they improved to 8-3 in the A-10, while the Bonnies walked off the floor 6-5 in the conference.”………………….WOW, thank GOD I didn’t watch that…No more comments as nothing good will come of me talking about that ending.

Foe of the Game:  the UMass defense who forced SBU into a mind-dumbing 20 turnovers. I don’t care who the hell you’re playing when you turn it over once every two minutes you won’t win.

Good stats: None. Honestly, go find me one. Oh, the bench played decent tonight by our standards.

Bad stats: 21% shooting from three, 36% shooting from the floor, -1 on the glass, -5 turnovers (20 total), just eight FT’s vs. 18 for UMass.  This was an ugly and crappy game all the way around. If UMASS was a really good team we would have lost by 15.

I wasn’t surprised that: We lost? This was the DEFINITION of a letdown/Bonaventure game. SBU does not “build on momentum” they don’t build winning streaks. They take one step forward and one back. They win a game, they lose a game. If they beat Dayton I would not be shocked in the least. This team has no consistency at all and is the definition of mediocre. If you don’t agree with me come back to me at the end of the year and let me know how many wins they have. I bet you it’s within one or two games of .500 and that’s an average team.

I was surprised that: We showed a bit of life and came back in the second half. But like the Siena game and the UMESS game we couldn’t finish the comeback and wound up losing despite those second half efforts.

What’s Up Next:  At Dayton on Saturday afternoon, game is on TV. This will be our biggest underdog game of the rest of the year. KenPom give us like a 15% chance of winning so we’ll probably win knowing this team.