I wasn’t in Olean, so I can’t offer much insightful analysis on this one. I didn’t even watch this one on TV like the other two games I didn’t attend, so I’m totally at the mercy of Bob and Earl, who didn’t seem too thrilled by SLU’s play. And, when they offered Porter Moser the out of saying the team looked tired, he would have none of that, saying it’s tough to win when Kevin and Tommie don’t have good games and Hall, SBU’s 3,  lit them up. Normally, the 3 would be Tommie’s guy, but in a case like this, there were probably a lot of people involved, apparently none of whom did well. And SLU shot so poorly, even a good defensive effort might not have mattered.

SLU’s 21 points in the first half were its fewest since scoring 16 at Temple, a game that may have matched this one for ugliness.

St. Bonaventure has been a SLU killer. The Bonnies in the past three seasons have won 11 A-10 games: Three have been over SLU. The others were two against Richmond, La Salle and Duquesne and one each against Fordham and UMass. And the Bonnie losses have been hangover inducing. Two years ago,  SLU followed up the loss with a loss at home to Duquesne.  Last year, it was followed by losses to Duquesne and Dayton. Up next for SLU: Duquesne. At least SLU has a week off this time. But winning at Duquesne will be tough.

I have a spread sheet in my computer which keeps track of who’s left on everybody’s schedule and I’ve got a column where I’ve made predictions as to how many wins each team would finish with. Prior to this game, I had SLU at 10 wins, figuring they’d win one of the final two road games. But I was thinking they would win at Bonaventure and lose at Duquesne. Winning at Duquesne will be tough, but isn’t impossible. But I’m starting to think 9-7 is a more likely finish. Still, as I’ve said many times, these guys always surprise me.

SLU can’t finish worse than ninth in the league and as long as they beat La Salle, they can’t be worse than eighth. SLU has dropped to seventh in the league standings, but could very well be back up to sixth on Thursday if St. Joe’s loses to Xavier. Rhode Island’s OT win over Dayton pushed them up to third and dropped the Flyers down to fourth. Temple at Dayton on Saturday is a big game. Duquesne is a game back of Dayton, but by my reckoning, Duquesne can’t finish ahead of Dayton unless it wins at Dayton on the final day of the season. The best SLU can finish is fourth, and that’s going to take a nasty combination of results. I’m looking at SLU in the 5-6-7 window, which likely means a team from the St. Bonaventure, UMass, Charlotte, GW pool. I’m giving Charlotte a slight edge in the race for the 12th spot.

SLU shot 36.2 percent, which is on par with some of its worst losses this season: Dayton 1, 36.3, Temple, 29.8, Xavier 30.8. Free throw shooting had been getting better, but 56.7 was its lowest since Temple, 57.1.

For the second straight game, SLU got hammered on the boards — they were minus 11 this time — but SLU missed so many shots there were plenty of rebounds for Bonnie to get.

After a few games with a high turnover to field goal ratio, SLU had 17 baskets and nine assists. And nine assists and nine turnovers.

SLU’s PPP was .87.  Bonaventure’s was 1.10.

The only teams to shoot better than 50 percent against SLU this season: Nebraska, Xavier, UMass, Temple, St. Joseph’s, St. Bonaventure.

Bonaventure had 34 points in the paint. That’s the fourth time in the past five games SLU’s opponent had exactly 34 points in the paint. It’s nothing but coincidence, but the only teams to score more are Xavier and Temple.

Lisch was 3 for 13 from the field. He’s 8 for 29 in the past three games combined.

Liddell had seven points. He’s had single digits in scoring in three ofhis past four games, and the one time he was in double figures he had 10. The difference this time was he didn’t have much elsewhere on the score sheet: four rebounds, two assists, one turnover. And he played 32 minutes.

Barry Eberhardt had foul trouble and only played 17 minutes but he still had six rebounds.

Paul Eckerle played eight minutes. He played a lot the last time SLU faced Duquesne as Majerus used a short lineup. So he may get called on again next week.

Kwamain Mitchell will not get a third straight rookie of the week award. He had 15 points but on 4 of 11 shooting and he had two assists to two turnovers. In his past seven games, he’s had 18 assists and 21 turnovers. He may be hitting a wall. 

Brett Thompson got his big guy matchup start and had five rebounds and just one foul in 19 minutes. Since Thompson made a 3 against Rhode Island, he’s tried and missed a 3 in each of the next three games. The only times this season Thompson has had a lower rate of fouls per minutes played (he played 19 on Wednesday) were against Kent State, Nebraska and Temple, all of which SLU lost. So it might be that a more physical Thompson, who gets called for a few fouls, produces better results.

I’ll have the plus-minus later.