By: Jonathan May, Contributor

The Result: All things must come to an end and in the case of the St. Bonaventure Men’s Basketball team, their 4 game winning streak in the Atlantic Ten Conference came to a screeching halt. The Bonnies fell to the Duquesne Dukes  by the score of 95-88 Saturday night in Pittsburgh. After racing out to a 4-0 start in conference play, the perennial underdog has taken on a new role of being the hunted and not the hunter and in their first test, the Bonnies came up short.

After a shaky start on both side of the ball for the Brown and White, the Bonnies weathered an early run and essentially traded baskets with the Dukes from about 10 minutes left to play in the first half. In what could be called a, “get out of dodge,” type of half, the Bonnies never fully played up to their potential and yet still edged out a one point halftime lead on the back of Freshman Nelson Kaputo and his last second 3 point shot that found the bottom of the net. 

The second half saw the Bonnies shake off the first half rust and jumped out to a 5 point lead behind the inside play of Senior Forward Dion Wright who recorded another double-double on the season, scoring 17 points and adding another 10 rebounds. But for every mini run that Bonnies came up with, the Dukes who were led by Derrick Colter and Micah Mason, answered every time.

With the Bonnies taking a 61-57 lead with 10:21 to play in the game, Jim Ferry called time out and drew up a set play for a shot by Colter. Colter drained his 3 point try and on the ensuing Bonnie possession, Jay Adams was picked and the Dukes converted the turnover for a Micah Mason layup that gave the lead to the Dukes for the last and final time.

Duquesne extended their lead to as many as 13 during the final ten minutes and went 11 of 12 from the line to seal the game and to take down the Bonnies from the ranks of the unbeaten in the A-10.

The Good:

1. Dion Wright. It’s been drilled into the head of anybody watching any telecast that he was only offered one Division 1 scholarship. Well that one scholarship has produced a 1,000 point scorer and a Senior leader on the floor that can be counted on each and every night to play hard and lead his team on both ends. Dion Wright is a stellar example of the type of player that will be recruited to St. Bonaventure and cultivated over four years. He’s the type of player that has continued the success that was sustained after the NCAA Tournament birth in 2012. Congratulations on a very fine career and here’s hoping he is rewarded with a trip to the post-season this year. 
2. In a game where it felt like the Bonnies never found their rhythm on offense, the team put up 88 points, shot 43% (12/28) from beyond the arc and only had 9 turnovers on the game. Jay Adams finished with 22, Gregg with 19, Wright with 17 and Posley with 15.
3. Jordan Tyson is slowly coming along and doing so in conference play to boot. Imagine if healthy, what the non-conference schedule could have done to speed up his learning curve. Still, 6 points, 4 rebounds and 1 block in 18 minutes are exactly the baby steps he needs to build on to give the front court some relief down the stretch in a daunting remaining A10 schedule.

The Bad: 

1. Rebounding. The Bonnies have found success when the entire roster is chipping in with rebounds this season but on Saturday, Duquesne dominated, especially when the Bonnies were on the offensive side of the ball. The Bonnies were out out-rebounded 35-19 and such a large disparity certainly paints a picture of how the Bonnies couldn’t generate second chance points. That leads to the next cause for concern…
2. Run out points. Not every game is going to be a run and gun type of affair but the Bonnies seemed ill-suited to match the speed of the Dukes when in transition. Countless times, the Dukes and Derrick Colter threw go ahead passes that turned into dunks or lay ups behind the Bonnie defense. Concern going forward? Probably not so, tonight may have simple been a matchup problem only with a fast paced team. Don’t expect that to happen often going forward.
3. Free Throw Shooting. St. Bonaventure was 6th in the nation in Free Throw Percentage at 77.4%. The Bonnies were well below their season average until Jay Adams brought the number back to respectability late in the game to make the team 16/24 from the stripe. This didn’t lose the game by any means but it was a step back for one of the strengths of the Bonnie offense.

Big Takeaways: All is not doom and gloom for the Bonnies after today’s result. Sure, the Bonnies dropped to a tie with some pretty formidable company in Dayton and St. Joes at 4-1 in the conference but to be 4-1 should still be celebrated. In no way did Bonnies fans overlook Duquesne especially after some pretty spectacular finishes, good and bad the past couple of years in Pittsburgh. The team also did not overlook the Dukes, Schmidt is too steady of a coach to let that type of thinking seep into the minds of his players.

 The Bonnies still battled for the entire 40 minutes and scored well on offense. Sometimes the other team is simply better on a certain night in the A10,  and the difference between 5-0 and 2-3 is pretty small. Duquesne is a team that will also give fits to other top A1o teams this season and that should soften the punch that Bona Nation took to the gut this evening. 

The Bonnies are still a formidable team in a conference that is notorious for being deep with talented teams. The Bonnies can be included in the talk of being one of those teams that are talented. The season is still on in full force and the students have a huge job to tackle this coming Tuesday.

The Stats:

What’s Next: No game should considered bigger than the rest in the A10 but Tuesday can qualify as a “Big” game. The Bonnies play host to the Dayton Flyers who have flirted with being nationally ranked from time to time this year. The game is at 7 p.m. Tuesday available on the American Sports Network. 

Standings: 

As of 9:52 p.m January 16th, 2016

Game Photos courtesy of Duquesne Athletics