St. Bonaventure
St. Bonaventure

St. Bonaventure Team Report

Updated: February 16, 2012 04:07 EST

It could be a case of just what the doctor ordered for St. Bonaventure on Saturday in Olean, N.Y.

Floundering Rhode Island, armed with a 5-22 record and in last place in the Atlantic 10, visits for the second game of the season between the two teams.

The Bonnies, 76-70 losers at home to first-place Temple on Wednesday night, beat the Rams 72-66 in overtime at their place back on Jan. 25, with seniors forwards Da'Quan Cook and Andrew Nicholson combining for 34 points and 12 rebounds.

St. Bonaventure has dropped its last two road games and, overall, the Bonnies have lost three of their last four, beating Duquesne in Olean last Saturday.

Wednesday night, the Bonnies (13-10, 6-5 in the A-10) charged back from 14 points down in the second half and made a game of it with a very good Temple team that recorded its 20th win of the season Wednesday night. The Owls hung on for the win.

Temple guards Ramone Moore, Juan Fernandez and Khalif Wyatt combined for 52 points in the win.

"Those three guards, Wyatt, Fernandez and Moore, are three of the best guards in the country," said Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt. "They had four, five minutes where they knocked us back. We played a little bit on our heels. A couple turnovers. ... I thought that was the key to their run, getting up 12, 13, whatever they were up by.

"But I thought our guys fought back. We had a chance if we had gotten a call to have a one-possession game down three but we didn't."

--Senior F Andrew Nicholson, the reigning Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the week (with Temple's Ramone Moore), scored 19 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked four shots in his team's 76-70 Atlantic 10 loss to first-place Temple on Wednesday night. Nicholson, who did have six of his team's 15 turnovers, but the four blocked shots gave him 220 for his college career.

Nicholson joined some pretty exclusive company in St. Bonaventure history when he recorded the school's first 20-20 game since Bob Lanier's 34-point, 27-rebound effort against Loyola (Md.) on Dec. 22, 1967.

Nicholson scored 21 points and hauled in 23 rebounds in the Bonnies' win over Duquesne,

--Junior G Eric Mosley came off the bench and scored a career-high 18 in 23 busy minutes. He was 4-for-7 from 3-point range. He also had four rebounds and two assists, going 6-for-11 overall from the floor.

--How efficient was Temple Wednesday night? The Owls turned the ball over only eight times.

--The St. Bonaventure bench outscored its Temple counterpart 32-7 in the loss.

--Senior F Andrew

helping St. Bonaventure take a 49-25 advantage on the boards.

His eight offensive rebounds were a career high.

"They were undersized, so I used it to my advantage," the 6-foot-9 Nicholson said.

Nicholson, who had fouled out of three of his previous four games, wasn't whistled for a personal foul. He had only two in the Feb. 8 loss to UMass, a game in which he scored 24 points and had nine rebounds.

"When he stays out of foul trouble, he's extremely good, coach Mark Schmidt said. "When he's had bad games, he's been in foul trouble."

BY THE NUMBERS: 9-1 -- Through Feb. 12, the Bonnies had won nine of 10 games in their Reilly Center home, losing only to Arkansas State on Dec. 1.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "In my dreams." -- Senior F Andrew Nicholson, asked the last time he had 20 rebounds in a game.

THIS WEEK'S GAMES

--vs. Rhode Island, Feb. 18

KEY MATCHUPS: The Rams have been inconsistent all season but can be dangerous when they get their act together. G Billy Baron has given them points and leadership in the backcourt since he gained his eligibility at the semester break, and F Jonathan Holton is one of the top freshmen in the conference, averaging over nine rebounds a game in conference play.

ON THE SPOT: There's no reason, on paper anyway, that the Bonnies can't make a push toward the Atlantic 10 tournament in Atlantic City. Three of the last five games are on the road, but two of them are at Fordham (9-15) and Charlotte (12-12) and one is at home against 5-22 URI (Saturday). The Bonnies should be able to find some wins and are on the spot to do so.

FUTURES MARKET: The Bonnies are waiting for sophomore G Matthew Wright to break out of his 3-point shooting slump. Wright missed his only 3-point attempt against Duquesne on Feb. 11, making him 6-for-35 over 11 games after going 22-for-59 (37.3 percent) in the first 11 games of the season.

PLAYER NOTES

--Junior G Eric Mosley came off the bench to score 12 points against Duquesne on Feb. 11, his first time in double figures since back-to-back 10-point games against Niagara and George Washington on Dec. 20 and Jan. 4.

--Junior F Demetrius Conger had eight rebounds against Duquesne on Feb. 11, his high since he had nine in the first meeting with the Dukes on Jan. 7.

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