The Billikens just rattled off their ninth consecutive win in an impressive road dismantling of Dayton. They played the Flyers brand of ball better than them and were able use a versatile defense in holding Archie Miller’s club to just 59 points at home.
St. Louis must now turnaround to deal with an ever improving St. Bonaventure squad which nearly knocked off UMass up in Amherst on Saturday. The Bonnies are both balanced and consistent, and they have a special player in senior guard Charlon Kloof.
Kloof, while not a natural point, is averaging 13 PPG, 3 RPG and 5 APG for the Bonnies and has been essential in their revival following a 14-15 2012-2013 season. He is both a solid defender and good at weaseling his way into the paint with the ball in his hands.
But the Bonnies looked impressive against UMass primarily because of the way they were able to handle Chaz Williams and the Minutemen offense. UMass mustered only 25 points through the first half before notching 48 in the second half.
Being able to finish games has been the primary problem for the Bonnies this year, as also evidenced by the Wake Forest road loss. They also finished poorly down the stretch against an improved Buffalo group, and playing a full 60 minutes in St. Louis Wednesday will be critical.
Junior center Youssou Ndoye has been coming on as of late, but he could have difficulty matching up with the versatile Rob Loe. Loe is a talented center who has legitimate stretch ability. He is a crafty player who should be able to create problems for the younger Youssou.
Bonaventure’s biggest scoring options in addition to Kloof are another pair of guards in Andell Cumberbatch and Matthew Wright. Both are 6’4 and have the ability to shoot from the outside and to also penetrate.
But what makes the Billikens appealing here is that their guards are well built to handle this match-up. They don’t have the size that the Bonaventure guards possess, but they are very quick and communicate extremely well. The Billikens are 12th best nationally in forcing turnovers, and that is bad news given that Bonaventure enters this game only 215 in turnover efficiency.
I mostly like St. Louis here, but this will be a non play for a few reasons. The Bonnies have covered the closing number in four consecutive contests and also possess an emerging bench as the result of contributions from Jordan Gathers, a 6’3 junior who has played major minutes lately and provided a steady hand to run the offense.
They also have Dion wright, a 6’7 sophomore from Lakewood, California who did not contribute much a season ago. Wright has logged 20 plus minutes each game since December 14 and has proven to be an efficiency bench scorer.
St. Louis looks good here, but I do not trust their offense or their bench enough. St. Bonaventure is coming on as a team. They could well suffer a setback here, but I’m also interested to see how they handle the adversity of their prior contest as they gear up for the heart of the conference season.
