By Paul Casey Gotham
St. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — The final day of regular season play in the Atlantic 10 brought plenty of intrigue to Western New York. With post-season conference scenarios swirling, the Brown and White took care of their responsibilities.
Andrew Nicholson poured in 30 points, and Ogo Adegboye made sure senior day wasn’t his last on the Reilly Center floor as the St. Bonaventure Bonnies outlasted the Rhode Island Rams 74-68 in A10 action Saturday afternoon.
When it was over, tickets sales were announced for Tuesday night’s first round game at the Reilly.
Nicholson paced St. Bonaventure with 10 points on five-of-six shooting as the Bonnies jumped to an early 13-point advantage.
“We always start the game off going inside,” St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said. “When we’re good, we go inside-out.”
The junior forward opened the scoring with what is becoming a signature move – catch in the post, dribbles to create space, pivot, up and under for the basket.
Adegboye stole a Will Martell pass the other end and led a two-on-one break finished by Demetrius Conger with a two-handed dunk.
The Bonnie defense continued to frustrate the Rams.
Michael Davenport grabbed a loose ball, led a three-on-one break, and Nicholson finished with a thunderous jam.
Da’Quan Cook fed Nicholson in early offense, and the Mississauga, Ontario native connected from 18 feet. St. Bonaventure 8-0.
After a timeout, Delroy James stemmed the tide for the Rams with a pull-up jumper from 15 feet.
But Adegboye responded with a 3-pointer off a baseline out-of-bounds play.
Nicholson gave the Brown and White its largest lead of the half at 21-8 with a near carbon copy of his back-to-the basket move which he started the game. Three minutes later the Rams closed within six, and Nicholson joined Conger and Davenport on the bench with two fouls apiece.
Marques Simmons capped a 14-11 run to close the stanza with an opportunistic 3-pointer. Rhode Island’s Marquise Jones stripped Matthew Wright, but the ball bounced away to the open Simmons who connected at the buzzer.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Schmidt said. “Rhode Island had a lot riding on it, so did we. But we accomplished a couple of our goals – a winning record, a seven seed, and all the credit goes to our players.”
Nicholson picked up where he left off scoring Bonaventure’s first 11 after the break as SBU took a 46-30 lead. First, he hit a turnaround jumper from the right. Then came a drop step in the middle of the lane for a layup. He followed with a 12′ jumper after catch and reverse pivot. Nicholson finished a lay up and traffic and capped the run with a 3-point shot off a baseline out-of-bounds play.
“Big time players make big plays in big time situations,” Schmidt noted. “There is no one in the country that could have played better. Inside, outside we jumped on his shoulders, and he carried us for that seven, eight minutes in the second half.”
But the Rams went to a 2-3 zone, and the change threw the Bonnies out of their rhythm.
Orion Outerbridge hit free-throw line jumper. Akeem Richmond hit from behind the arc in transition. Richmond followed with a pair of free throws. James hit from long range, and a Richmond layup closed the gap to eight.
Five minutes later, Jones hit from behind the arc, and the Rams trailed by one.
The teams traded a pair before Adegboye took charge. The senior guard scored nine straight including a three from the corner with the shot clock winding down when Matthew Wright made the extra pass after using a perfectly timed shot fake to draw the defense.
Two technical fouls in the final minute contributed to St. Bonaventure’s win. The Rams attempted to substitute a player whose number was incorrectly reported in the official scorebook. Moments later, another technical was issued when the URI bench argued the time allowed for Bonaventure to set up on defense for a baseline out-of-bounds play.
“It just seemed like there was a lot of time,” explained current URI and former SBU head coach Jim Baron. “They were standing like they had a timeout. We made the change with the substitutions, and the referee was holding. There was no timeout going on. They kept the kids down there, and the three referees are looking at each other, and all I’m saying is make the move. Drop the ball, and let it be in play.”
“They won the game,” Baron said of the Bonnies. “They beat us.”
Nicholson hit 12-of-14 from the field including one from behind the arc and five-of-six from the line.
“He’s a really good player,” Baron commented. “He reminds a lot of Cyrus (former Bona player, Caswell) that we had here. He was a big difference maker inside. He’s worked to get better each and every year. He can shoot the ball. He can take it off the dribble. He did some things that I didn’t see him do the last time we played against him.”
Adegboye marked his final regular-season game at home with 16 points and three assists.
Wright led the Bonnies with seven assists.
The Bonnies hit 51 percent (25-49) from the field and controlled the boards 31-25 including 13 offensive rebounds.
The Rams were a perfect 16-of-16 from the free throw line and connected on 61.5 percent (8-13) from behind the arc. URI falls to 9-7 in the A10 and 18-12 overall. The Rams open the conference tournament at home against St. Louis.
Jones led the Rams with 22. James added 19, and Richmond had 10.
With the win, St. Bonaventure clinched its first winning season since 2001-02. The Bonnies went 8-8 in the A10 and clinched a home game against La Salle to open the tourney. The Bonnies beat the Explorers 82-61 on February 12th at the Reilly Center.
Tip off is scheduled for 5 p.m.
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