St. Bonaventure vs. Canisius: Bonnies Lose Season Opener

As time on the clock reached zero, St. Bonaventure was left wondering how they had lost to Canisius 80-70. It was an unexpected result for two reasons: the Bonnies had looked so dominant in the preseason and they had defeated the Griffins by eight just one year ago.

It seemed this game would head the same way when the Bonnies scored 13 of the game's first 19 points, giving them a seven point cushion. Unfortunately the game went downhill from that point.

Let me make this point clear. The Bonnies did not play poorly, they just couldn't hit the shots when they needed to. There were plenty of bright spots for the Bona' faithful to be proud of, one being the play of red-shirt Junior Da'Quan Cook.

The knock against Cook is that he is not physical enough to get the job done at the Division I level, but on this night he kept the Bonnies in the game scoring ten of his 11 points in the first half. Michael Davenport, a player the Bonnies need to step up this season, tied a career high with 19 points.

His assortment of slashes to the hoop along with an improved mid-range jumper will go a long way towards helping win games this season. Of course you cannot discuss any Bona's game without speaking of star center Andrew Nicholson.

Nicholson was his usual self in this game. He led all scorers with 23 points while being both double and triple teamed. For the most part he even stayed out of foul trouble, something that has been his Achilles heel since joining the team.

However, the most perplexing part of the game was the game plan that Head Coach Mark Schmidt drew up against Canisius. After showing a full-court man-to-man defense during the exhibition against Mansfield, the Bonnies came out in a zone and stayed with it the whole game.

Schmidt needs to explain this decision as Canisius beat the zone by continually knocking down jumpers. Included in their barrage of jump shots were back-breaking three pointers which took the life out of the team.

Schmidt also only used six players throughout the game if you don't include Brett Roseboro's three minutes of action and freshman Sam de Hass's one minute at the end of the game. Hopefully this is a trend that will not continue as fatigue was definitely a factor in the second half.

However, it is important to point out that even with all of the bad decisions made, the Bonnies should have won this game. If they were able to capitalize on only five open jump-shots they had then we would be discussing a Bonaventure win.

Shooting only four out of 17 from three-point range is unacceptable especially since most of the shots were uncontested courtesy of Nicholson being double-teamed.

Schmidt now has one day off before the team takes the court for their home opener at the Reilly Center to face Arkansas Little Rock. Schmidt was quoted as saying he doesn't even know who the coach of their team is.

He better know enough about them to get a win on Sunday, otherwise the Bona faithful may turn on him quickly. It's a must win only one game into the season and Nicholson must lead this team to victory.