By Aaron M Smith
- Courtesy GoBonnies.com
ST. BONAVENTURE, NY – Outside the Reilly Center, the temperature was frigid and for the start of the game – so was the shooting of the Bonnies. Relying on strong team defense and outstanding bench play, St. Bonaventure pulled away from Canisius for an 81-62 win. Chris Johnson came off the bench to score 19 points and Matthew Wright added 16 points as the Bonnies broke open a close game for a decisive win. Harold Washington paced the Golden Griffins with 19 points.
The Bonnies started the game ice cold from the field, finally getting on the board at the 18:07 mark, thanks to a pair of free throws by Da’Quan Cook. Cook was fouled by Canisius’ Chris Manhertz after receiving a slick interior pass from Matthew Wright. Canisius jumped out to a 6-2 lead on the strength of baskets by Washington, Alshwan Hymes, and Josiah Heath. Bonaventure’s first bucket didn’t come until the 14:30 mark of the first half on a tap-in by Andrew Nicholson off a missed Da’Quan Cook layup.
The Golden Griffins, playing a soft zone in an attempt to keep the ball from Andrew Nicholson, forced the Bonnies to settle for outside jumpers. For most of the first half, it worked as the Bonnies were just 3 for 10 from behind the 3-point line. But as most basketball fans know, the best cure for an ice-cold offense is a good defense, and the Bonnies’ defense harassed the Golden Griffins into 8 first half turnovers and just 35% shooting from the field.
“I thought we did a good job in the first half, especially defensively, getting out to their shooters. The keys to the game – their guards are very good off the bounce and when they shoot a high percentage of threes they are hard to beat,” St. Bonaventure Coach Mark Schmidt said. “Even though Washington had 19 it took him 18 shots to get it. We made him work.”
With the game tied at 8, Youssou Ndoye brought the Bonaventure faithful to their feet with a two-handed block on a Harold Washington running jumper. Johnson quickly grabbed the loose ball, drove the length of the floor, and dished to Michael Davenport for the easy layup.
Unfortunately for the Bonnies, this would be Davenport’s only basket of the game. The early season injury bug reared its head again when Davenport was taken to the locker room in the first half with an apparent shoulder injury. Davenport would not return for the rest of the game.
After trading baskets, the Bonnies started to pull away around the 10 minute mark with a trifecta from Matthew Wright. On the next possession, Da’Quan Cook stole the rock ,and Nicholson promptly followed a Wright miss with another putback and a foul for the old fashioned three point play. The teams traded baskets before a late three by Charlton Kloof extended the Bonnies’ lead to 35-23. On the play, Kloof curled off a screen for Demitrius Conger on the wing, only to find himself wide open for three from the corner. The half ended with the Bonnies leading 36-25.
The second half started the same way the first half ended as Wright hit a 3 on the team’s first possession from the wing after receiving a pass from Kloof. The next trip down Wright found Andrew Nicholson off a pump fake on the wing for an easy slam dunk, and the Bonnies quickly extended their lead to 41-27. But Washington refused to let the Golden Griffins go away quietly, answering with five straight points of his own. Three of Washington’s five points came on a deep trey from the top of the key with the shot clock was running down.
For the game the Bonnies shot 46% from the field and were 8 for 23 behind the three point line. “We wanted to defend inside out, I thought we did that. The out is where I thought we got in trouble as they made shots,” Canisius Coach Tom Parrotta explained. “Where they started to wear us down was on the glass. There hasn’t been a team this year that has beat us up like that on the glass. However, we had our opportunities offensive rebounding. I think we had 17 second chance points. So there was a lot of good things from our standpoint.”
Nicholson, who finished with the 19th double -double of his career (10 points and 10 rebounds), picked up his third foul at the 18:15 mark in the second half and was forced to sit. But the night belonged to Chris Johnson, who scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half.
“Coach Schmidt always talks about being ready,” Johnson explained. “We practice that every day and when someone goes down, we have to step up. We did that as a team and we all came together in Mike’s absence.”
Adding to offensive attack was Matthew Wright, who contributed 10 of his 16 points in the second half.
The Bonnies are off until next Sunday, December 18th when Loyola(Md.) comes to the Reilly Center for a 2:30 pm tip-off.
The Golden Griffins travel to University Missouri-Kansas City for a 8:05 pm tip-off on December 16th.
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