Griffs’ Weir is not afraid to show what’s on his sleeve

By Paul Gotham

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Fans might characterize Adam Weir as detached maybe even a little aloof. Make no mistake. When the ball goes up, the Canisius Golden Griffins redshirt freshman is all in. One needs to look no further than Saturday night for proof.

“I’m usually a quiet guy,” Weir said after Canisius fell to St. Bonaventure into the 163rd meeting between Big 4 rivals. “When I get out on the court I feel like I open up. It’s a different type of person I am.”

The Tonowanda, N.Y. native entered Saturday’s game with the visiting Golden Griffins trailing by 10 having missed its first 13 shots from the floor.

“Give them credit,” Weir said of the Bonnies. “They were playing good defense. In the beginning the crowd was into it, maybe got us a little rattled.”

Weir let fly from behind the arc less than 30 seconds after taking the court. Andell Cumberbatch blocked the attempt stirring the Bona student section into a frenzy.

“We’re not really worried about that,” Weir said of the early struggles. “We’re going to go through rough patches. We just got to come together as a team at that point.”

One minute later, he returned the favor and stepped in to take a charge from Cumberbatch. He followed that with an assist on the Griffs first basket of the night – a Jeremiah Williams 3-pointer.

“I was here last year,” Weir commented. “I knew it was going to be rowdy. As a player, you like that. It gets your adrenaline going. It was a good experience.”

Ten minutes later, Canisius turned a 10-point deficit into a four-point advantage. Weir subbed in again. This time he drilled back-to back treys. His second silenced the crowd and gave Canisius its largest lead of the night at 28-20. He reacted with a fist pump and smile as he returned to the defensive end.

“That felt good, but I would like to have come out with a win.”

Canisius took a two-point edge into halftime before eventually falling 59-53.

“We showed a lot of composure,” Canisius head coach Jim Baron said of the comeback. “It’s all part of the process. We’re playing to score. We’re playing to win. We’re not playing to not lose… We just turned it over too many times…We graduated nine guys in two years. We go a lot of guys stepping up. They needed the crowd. That student body was terrific. They got ’em over the hump.”

Canisius (2-1) travels to Cornell (2-4) on Wednesday where they will take on the Big Red. A 7 p.m. tipoff is scheduled.