The Flyers traveled to Olean, NY, for a Thursday evening matchup with St. Bonaventure. Needing to string together a number of wins to climb back into the Atlantic-10 race, the Flyers were facing a tough challenge over the next six days. Not only did they have to travel to one of the tougher places to play in America, but they knew they had to turn around and face Fordham on short rest and follow that with a trip to Cincinnati.

The three games would be all the more difficult as Brooks Hall would miss the next two to four weeks with a stress fracture. The Flyers showed it might be a very long two to four weeks Thursday night, dropping a 66–51 decision to the Bonnies — falling into a seventh place tie with George Washington.Desperately needing the three upper classmen to step up, Tony Stanley, David Morris, and Yuanta Holland found the going very rough instead. Without Hall to draw the attention of the defense, Stanley hit his first shot, then proceeded to miss 9 in a row. Ultimately, he would finish with just 8 points on 3- 4 of shooting. David Morris was held scoreless until the game was decided and the Flyers got little production from Holland on the inside.

While the Flyers clearly missed the presence of Brooks Hall, most of their problems were all too familiar to Flyer fans. On offense, they failed to take care of the basketball and took far too many ill-advised three-point shots. In the first half alone, the Flyers attempted 12 treys, connecting on just three. Most of the attempts came on the first or second pass without the ball going inside. While that’s a familiar song, it is a particularly sad one as the Flyers managed to convert 7 of their 11 attempts inside the arc. The Flyers also committed 11 first half turnovers. And once again, the defense was a sieve. Early in the second half, the Bonnies were connecting on nearly 60% of their three-point attempts as the Flyers failed to stop the ball in transition and left shooters wide open around the arc.Despite the poor shot selection, poor defense, poor ball handling, and their inability to create turnovers of their own, the Flyers found themselves in a game in the first half — grabbing a 12-11 lead on a Ramod Marshall trey. But the Bonnies hit threes on the next three possessions and opened an eight point lead. The Flyers cut the deficit to 28-24 at the half, and trailed just 32-28 before the Bonnies went on a 20-7 run to put the game away.

Barring a surprising winning streak of considerable prorportions, the loss virtually eliminated the Flyers from NCAA at-large contention. However, one bright spot was the play of the four Flyer freshmen. Ramod Marshall and Keith Waleskowski made a few mistakes as they tried to provide some offense in Hall’s absence, but generally continued their fine freshmen seasons. Marshall led the Flyers with 10 points. And Sean Finn got some extended playing time and played his best ball of the season. Perhaps it is time to start playing the youngsters and planning for the future.For the game, UD let SBU shoot a sizzling .500% from the field, including 10-19 from behind the arc — making the .500% feel more like a percentile in the mid-60s. On the other hand, Dayton shot just .400% and were a dismal 6-25 from trey. Tony Stanley disappeared once again, shooting just 3-15 from the floor that included a 2-11 showing from behind the three-point arc. If Stanley is going to settle for so many three-point shots, the Flyers have no chance in the A-10. While the veterans looked completely inept at times, Keith Waleskowski pitched in his usual solid performance — netting 10pts and 9rbs, both team-highs. If Waleskowski has no trouble playing well every night, the question becomes, “why does everybody else?” Maybe the most telling statistic however can be told at the foul line. SBU shot 18 free throws while Dayton attempted an anemic two. In a battle of the two best rebounding teams in the conference, Dayton came out ahead — but only because most of St. Bonaventure’s shots were going through the net.
Fans can get their first in-person look at the Flyers without Brooks Hall at the Arena on Saturday evening as Dayton takes on the dangerous and talented Fordham Rams.