In the first game of the year in the newly renovated Reilly Center, St. Bonaventure defeated Alfred State, 63-39, on Wednesday night.
“I thought, in the second half, we started playing more cohesively”, said St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt in his post-game press conference.
The Bonnies hit none of their eight 3-point attempts in the first half, which led them to only have a single-digit lead to end the half against the Division III program.
“Our offense is good, but makes it look ugly when you’re not making shots,” said Schmidt.
Despite only making three out of their 17 3-point attempts throughout the game, St. Bonaventure had 48 points in the paint, which Schmidt said was a big positive.
However, they did get out-rebounded in this game. Schmidt said that can’t happen down the line if they want to be competitive.
“This is something we need to work on,” said Schmidt.
Schmidt added that his goal for them is to win the rebound battle by 10 every game. This is due to their size around the perimeter and in the paint.
As the Bonnies head into regular season play on Monday against California State University, Cambridge, the Bonnies are looking to carry over the positives from Wednesday’s exhibition game.
“We’re going to put it together by pushing the tempo and cutting turnovers,” said senior and team captain Melvin Council Jr., a guard transfer from Wagner.
Schmidt also said the Bonnies have to be more aggressive and play better on-ball defense on Monday. He said this is something they will work on heading into the weekend.
“We have all the faith in the world. We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t have faith,” said Schmidt regarding the team’s improvement on weaknesses going into Monday.
Overall, this was just an exhibition game to help settle players into a real-game mentality in front of a crowd for the first time this season. In a few days, we’ll see if the Bonnies can tighten up their shooting and rebounding for their real home opener.
