What a difference five days makes. Last Saturday at the Reilly Center, the St. Bonaventure basketball team got all that it wanted from bottom-feeder Massachusetts.
The Minutemen used a triangle-and-two defense to stymie the Bonnies high-scoring guard tandem ? Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley ? holding them to 3-of-18 combined shooting, including 1-of-9 on treys. Their collective 22 points ? barely half of what they average ? was mostly a product of their combined 15-for-15 shooting from the foul line, which still translated to a 60-56 Bona victory.
But, alas, the triangle-and-two only works if it forces the targeted shooters to miss persistently.
And on Thursday afternoon, before an Atlantic 10 Tournament pre-quarterfinal crowd of 7,509, at PPG Paints Arena, UMass? return to that defense was costly.
Mobley, who scored only five points in the regular season finale, went for a game-high 19 and four boards in helping propel the fifth-seeded Bonnies (20-11) into this afternoon?s quarterfinal against No. 4 seed Rhode Island.
And Adams, who despite Saturday?s shooting woes, finished with 17 points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals, had similar stats yesterday, again scoring 17 with four boards, two steals and six assists, all of them coming in the first 10? minutes.
Mobley and Adams were a bit more accurate (9-of-25) but hit 14-of-15 free throws as Bona pulled away for a 70-63 victory.
ST. BONAVENTURE now steps up in class, facing the 21-9 Rams who likely must win to keep alive their slender hopes for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
The two teams met only once this season, in late January at Kingston, with Rhode Island prevailing on its home floor, 71-59, in a game the Bonnies never led. Adams had 25 points and five assists while Mobley scored only nine but tied for the game-high with 11 boards.
Since then the Rams have gone 8-2 and won five straight while Bona is 7-4 over that span and has prevailed in four of its last five.
Most significantly, coach Mark Schmidt?s crew beat UMass three times this season, holding the Minutemen to their two lowest point totals of the season in a span of less than a week and, in the process, helping coach Derek Kellogg lose his job.
Afterward, Kellogg, following his last press conference, was fired even before his team left the building. His squad had struggled to a 15-18 finish following 14-18 and 17-15 campaigns. ?That was kind of a frustrating game for us,? said Kellogg, who had three seasons of 21-or-more wins from 2011-12 to 2013-14. ?I thought we had kind of a good game plan in place (but Bona ) did a really good job of attacking our triangle-and-two that worked so well five days ago.
?I think they took every second of every day to prepare for it whether it was UMass or Saint Joe?s (winning the play-in game). They did a really good job and I thought they outplayed us.?
Schmidt conceded, ?Our defense was our catalyst today and it has been for the last few games. It needs to be (today) if we?re going to beat a team as good as Rhode Island.?
As for playing an opponent that drew the double bye 22 hours after its own tourney opener, Schmidt said, ?When you?re 18 to 22 years old, you should never get tired ? when you?re dead you can rest.
?Hopefully we can play well ? (but) there?s no guarantees. Rhode Island hasn?t played here, but they?re rested yet haven?t shot here. We?ve shot here, but we?re not as rested. Who knows? We made that point against UMass (which beat Saint Joseph?s 70-63 on Wednesday night). We?ve just got to go out there and play our best and see what happens.?
Schmidt added of that first meeting with Rhode Island, ?I thought we defended decently ? but they blocked 15 shots against us and we didn?t shoot the ball well (18-of-61, 30 percent).
?They out-physicaled us ... manhandled us at times, I thought, and you can?t win like that. So we?ve got to play better (today).?
The Minutemen used a triangle-and-two defense to stymie the Bonnies high-scoring guard tandem ? Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley ? holding them to 3-of-18 combined shooting, including 1-of-9 on treys. Their collective 22 points ? barely half of what they average ? was mostly a product of their combined 15-for-15 shooting from the foul line, which still translated to a 60-56 Bona victory.
But, alas, the triangle-and-two only works if it forces the targeted shooters to miss persistently.
And on Thursday afternoon, before an Atlantic 10 Tournament pre-quarterfinal crowd of 7,509, at PPG Paints Arena, UMass? return to that defense was costly.
Mobley, who scored only five points in the regular season finale, went for a game-high 19 and four boards in helping propel the fifth-seeded Bonnies (20-11) into this afternoon?s quarterfinal against No. 4 seed Rhode Island.
And Adams, who despite Saturday?s shooting woes, finished with 17 points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals, had similar stats yesterday, again scoring 17 with four boards, two steals and six assists, all of them coming in the first 10? minutes.
Mobley and Adams were a bit more accurate (9-of-25) but hit 14-of-15 free throws as Bona pulled away for a 70-63 victory.
ST. BONAVENTURE now steps up in class, facing the 21-9 Rams who likely must win to keep alive their slender hopes for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
The two teams met only once this season, in late January at Kingston, with Rhode Island prevailing on its home floor, 71-59, in a game the Bonnies never led. Adams had 25 points and five assists while Mobley scored only nine but tied for the game-high with 11 boards.
Since then the Rams have gone 8-2 and won five straight while Bona is 7-4 over that span and has prevailed in four of its last five.
Most significantly, coach Mark Schmidt?s crew beat UMass three times this season, holding the Minutemen to their two lowest point totals of the season in a span of less than a week and, in the process, helping coach Derek Kellogg lose his job.
Afterward, Kellogg, following his last press conference, was fired even before his team left the building. His squad had struggled to a 15-18 finish following 14-18 and 17-15 campaigns. ?That was kind of a frustrating game for us,? said Kellogg, who had three seasons of 21-or-more wins from 2011-12 to 2013-14. ?I thought we had kind of a good game plan in place (but Bona ) did a really good job of attacking our triangle-and-two that worked so well five days ago.
?I think they took every second of every day to prepare for it whether it was UMass or Saint Joe?s (winning the play-in game). They did a really good job and I thought they outplayed us.?
Schmidt conceded, ?Our defense was our catalyst today and it has been for the last few games. It needs to be (today) if we?re going to beat a team as good as Rhode Island.?
As for playing an opponent that drew the double bye 22 hours after its own tourney opener, Schmidt said, ?When you?re 18 to 22 years old, you should never get tired ? when you?re dead you can rest.
?Hopefully we can play well ? (but) there?s no guarantees. Rhode Island hasn?t played here, but they?re rested yet haven?t shot here. We?ve shot here, but we?re not as rested. Who knows? We made that point against UMass (which beat Saint Joseph?s 70-63 on Wednesday night). We?ve just got to go out there and play our best and see what happens.?
Schmidt added of that first meeting with Rhode Island, ?I thought we defended decently ? but they blocked 15 shots against us and we didn?t shoot the ball well (18-of-61, 30 percent).
?They out-physicaled us ... manhandled us at times, I thought, and you can?t win like that. So we?ve got to play better (today).?
