photo: Erin Lanahan/The Intrepid
By Jeff Uveino
ST. BONAVENTURE — When you lose by 12 points at home, there’s not too many positives to take away from the game.
That’s what Mark Schmidt, head coach of the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, had to say after his team was thrashed in its season opener by the Ohio Bobcats, 65-53, Tuesday night in the Reilly Center.
It was evident that Bona’s offense struggled against Ohio’s zone defense.
Schmidt compared it to Syracuse’s zone, saying it was essentially the same scheme.
“Their zone really affected us,” Schmidt said. “We didn’t attack it well and we weren’t aggressive. I think it was a combination of that, and us missing some shots.”
Ohio head coach Jeff Boals said that he came into the game hoping to keep Bona’s shooters off balance.
“I thought our zone helped win the game tonight,” he said. “They got some good looks and it probably would have been a different game if they hit some of them.”
SBU shot 3-19 from beyond the arc (15.8 percent), and 36.4 percent from the field.
Dom Welch and Kyle Lofton had forgettable games to begin their sophomore seasons.
Welch scored five points, shot 2-12 from the field and 1-8 from three-point range. His only made three was with less than a minute remaining in the game, when the Bonnies were trailing by 16 points.
Lofton, who scored eight points, shot 3-11 from the field and 0-2 from beyond the arc.
“Your better players have to play well, and those guys struggled tonight,” Schmidt said. “We have faith in them, but when they don’t play well it’s hard to score.”
Freshman guard Alejandro Vasquez led the Bonnies in scoring with 12 points.
Vasquez, just the third Bona freshman to start a season opener in the Schmidt era (Jaylen Adams and Lofton), showed that he isn’t afraid to shoot the ball.
He took several good shots, and on other occasions, looked like he was trying to force it.
Vasquez shot 3-11 from the field and 2-7 from three.
Lost in the scenes from the night was an injury to Bonnies sophomore forward Osun Osunniyi.
With 15:49 left in the second half, Osunniyi stayed down on the floor after a play and appeared to be holding his knee.
The preseason all-conference and all-defensive team selection was helped off the floor by the Bona coaching staff, and looked like he was in a lot of pain. Osunniyi finished with six points in 11 minutes.
No additional information on the injury was provided after the game.
In his long-anticipated Bonaventure debut, forward Bobby Planutis scored eight points and pulled down 10 rebounds, including six offensive boards. He threw down an impressive transition dunk in the first half.
For Ohio, the three-headed attack of Jordan Dartis, Ben Vander Plas and Jason Preston was enough to beat the Bona defense.
Dartis led the scoring with 19 points, and shot 7-15 from the field. Vander Plas added 12 points for the Bobcats.
Perhaps the most impressive stat line, however, came from Preston.
The sophomore guard handed out 13 assists to go with 11 points, six rebounds and seven steals.
“(Preston) controlled the game for them,” Schmidt said. “We knew he was a good player and tried to keep him out of the paint, but he just controlled the game.”
Boals said that he was proud of his team for going into a hostile road environment and starting its season on the right foot.
“In order to win a conference championship, you’ve got to win tough games,” Boals said. “This place is as good as any. I’ve been at Duke and I’ve been at Kansas, and this place gets loud.”
For SBU, things don’t get any easier, as they host the defending America East conference champion Vermont Catamounts on Friday night.
“It’s never good to be young, but that’s just the way it is and we need to overcome that,” Schmidt said. “Hopefully this is a wake-up call and hopefully it shows the young guys what Division I basketball is all about.”
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