By Jeff Fasoldt
Posley for the win: Not one, but two game winners for St. Bonaventure junior guard Marcus Posley in a row. After driving through the lane and hitting the shot vs. Davidson, Posley was up to the task again as he drove past three VCU defenders and throw a shot off the backboard with his right hand as he was falling away. All in all, Posley had a great game scoring 15 points in 39 minutes of play.
“Havoc” gone missing?: VCU is known for their suffocating defense that involves a multitude of traps and rotations, normally leading to plenty of turnovers for the other team. However, Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt had his team ready for the storm as the turnover margin between the team was nearly identical with the Bonnies having just one more turnover than the Rams.
No Webber or Graham for the Rams: It certainly helped the Bonnies not having to worry about VCU’s two best players, Trevor Graham—the Rams leading scorer, and Briante Weber—arguably the best defensive player in the nation. Graham was a game time decision while Weber unfortunately is out for the season after tearing his ACL, MCL and meniscus.
Jay showing poise: coach Schmidt has to be proud of his young guard Jaylen Adams, who despite being only a freshman, only turned the ball over twice against one of the best defenses in the country.
Paint dominance: Points in the paint have proven to be Bonaventure’s specialty with Dion Wright and Youssou Ndoye, two of the top big-men in the A-10 this season. Wright led the Bonnies in scoring with 19, and Ndoye added 13 with most of those coming in the second-half. In total, they outscored VCU 40-28 in the paint.
Key quotes:
VCU head coach, Shaka Smart:
“Our guys showed a lot of poise, there were plenty of times where they could’ve folded up the tent. The crowd was terrific today but you have to give St. Bonaventure credit.”
“That shot that Posley made was a terrific shot. I’m sure that when we see it on tape we’ll see that it wasn’t that bad defense just a great shot.”
“I thought Jaylen Adams showed really good poise, leading their team to single-digit turnovers.”
SBU head coach, Mark Schmidt:
“Great game, great atmosphere, I told the guys after the Davidson game I don’t know if it could get better, but today it got better.”
“They (VCU) come at you in waves and we knew that but I think our guys are in pretty good shape and look accustomed to it.”
“Denzel (Gregg) was terrific. He came off the bench and gave us great production and also got the crowd fired up with a couple dunks.”
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