Nate Santos led the Flyers with only 12 points. (Press Pros File Photos)
It is no fun adventure playing at St. Bonaventure and the University of Dayton basketball team found it out in a big, bad way Tuesday night, losing to the Bonnies, 75-53, under a barrage of three-pointers.
Olean, NY — The Road Ogre once again grabbed the University of Dayton basketball team by the throat and choked the life out of it.
St. Bonaventure, losers of three straight games, annihilated the Flyers Tuesday night in the Reilly Center, 75-53. That is no typographical error —Seventy-five to Fifty-three.
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On this night, the Flyers were not great, they were not good, they were just downright bad.
A few years ago, ESPN’s Jay Bilas said Reilly Center was one of the five toughest places for visitors to play.
The Flyers were force-fed a gagging dose or Reilly Reality.
“Road wins are hard,” said UD coach Anthony Grant after the Flyers lost their third Atlantic-10 road game, all in which they entered the game as favorites.
“You have to be locked in, you have to bring your best and for a variety of reasons we weren’t at our best,” he added.
For the Flyers, Reilly Center was a den of execution. . .and they executed themselves.
Enoch Cheeks had another struggling night with only 10 points.
The UD offense wasn’t just out of synch, it was in total discombobulation. Defense? Just a rumor.
“We didn’t play with intensity, we didn’t coach well enough, didn’t play well enough tonight,” said Grant. “You can chalk it up to us having a little injury bug and a little illness bug.”
The bug on this night was a massive tarantula.
St. Bonaventure is populated by seven transfers, which is about par in today’s college basketball game.
And one of them, L’jae Jones shot three-pointers as if they were uncontested layups. . .as did all the Bonnies. He swished three-pointers from the corners with the calm of a Zen monk.
Jones had made 3 of 13 three-pointers in his previous three games and missed his first one Tuesday. Then he made five straight in the first 10 minutes of the game to help the Bonnies construct a 24-13 lead.
For the game, the Bonnies hit 12 of 25 three-pointers, this from a team that came in shooting 32.4% from outside the arc. And they made 27 of 53 overall, 50.9%.
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On the other side of the lop-sided stat sheet, the Flyers were 21 of 52 from the field (40.4%) and 8 for 24 from three (33.3%).
With Jones sniping away, the Bonnies led by as many as 13 in the first half, before the Flyers cut it to seven by the end of the half, 39-32.
And when Javon Bennett buried a three to start the second half, the Flyers were within four, 39-35 and maybe it was about to turn around.
Amael L’Etang started fast with eight points, but played only 11 minutes.
It was a quick flash, a glimmering mirage.
St. Bonaventure went on a 16-1 run after Bennett’s basket and it was 55-36 and they could have turned out the lights and swept the floor.
“Mentally and physically, they were better than us today in every facet,” said Grant. “We weren’t able to finish plays on the offensive end.
“Their preparation, they took some things away from us and they brought a level of physicality that we’ve struggled with throughout the season,” he added.
The Bonnies preparation and execution of their game plan was as smooth as a dance on the Danube.
Dayton’s first basket after Bennett’s three came with 12 minutes left in the game, a three-pointer by Enoch Cheeks.
Jones, averaging 10 a game finished with 23 and made 6 of 10 three-point attempts. Point guard Melvin Council Jr. scored 18.
Amazingly, the Bonnies blasted UD despite their leading scorer, Chance Moore (14.5 points a game), scored only four.
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The Flyers were led, if that term can be used, by Nate Santos with 12 and Enoch Cheeks scored 10. Amael L’Etang scored eight and Isaac Jack came off the bench to score nine.
Not only did the Bonnies outscore and outshoot the Flyers, they outrebounded UD, 36-27.
What the Bonnies took away most was the scoring of Santos and Cheeks, both of whom struggled to reach double figures.
Isaac Jack came off the bench and contributed nine points.
“On the other end (defense), we couldn’t get stops,” said Grant. “They had some guys step up and shoot the ball extremely well. They were able to exploit us in transition, they hurt us touching the paint and kicking out (for threes). They hurt us getting to the rim.
“We weren’t as connected as we needed to be defensively, collectively or individually,” he added.
Or as Mary Todd Lincoln was asked, “Other than that, how was the play?”
UD’s play was a basketball atrocity. After losing back-to-back road games at George Washington and UMass, the Flyers destroyed Duquesne on the road and won two home game before Tuesday’s disaster.
The three-game winning streak crash landed and the Flyers are 4-4 in A-10 play and 14-7 overall.
And it gets no easier.
Javon Bennett suffered an off night, 2 for 9 shooting.
The Flyers fly to St. Louis Wednesday, have one day of preparation, then play Saint Louis Friday night.
“We get another opportunity, so we’ve gotta figure out how to get the five guys on the floor, whoever is out there, to give us maximum effort, going together offensively,” said Grant.
“We need to make the adjustments in games and stick with it with one purpose in mind. . .that’s to try to win games,” he added. “We have to find that. We were making strides toward that, we have to get that back. Today was not one of our finer days.
“But we know we can do it, we’ve done it before. We just have to find a group that can go out there and put it all in practice as to how we play the game.”
It is 21 games into the season and Grant finds himself trying to find the right combination, a sustained winning combination.
The search Tuesday night was a giant step, make that two giant steps, in reverse.
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