By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
ST. BONAVENTURE — The mood in the full-capacity Reilly Center was jovial from the start.
Some of the greatest players in St. Bonaventure history made the trip to celebrate 100 years of basketball for Saturday’s game, including the greatest of all time. Bob Lanier hadn’t set foot on the Bonaventure campus since the court was dedicated in his honor in 2007.
The current team responded with its finest performance of the season thus far, shooting a shade under 50 percent and holding the Hofstra Pride 37 points below their season average in a 73-45 victory.
The Bonnies sank 12 three-pointers, a season high, while limiting the Pride a season low three. SBU, now 5-4, also won the rebounding battle 45-35 and outscored Hofstra 28-18 in the paint.
After Hofstra took an 11-4 lead in the first five minutes, Bona went on a 24-1 run over the next seven. Osun Osunniyi, who played 28 minutes and put up eight points and 16 rebounds despite bouts of knee discomfort, dunked twice to kick off the run, which was supplemented by three-pointers by Jaren English, Bobby Planutis and Dominick Welch.
Welch and English, making his third consecutive start, led the Bonnies with 17 points apiece. Planutis added 11 as the third player in double figures. Bona remains perfect (4-0) since English made his season debut and Osunniyi returned from injury.
The current Bonnies ate with the 1970 Final Four team at their team meal on Friday night. English, who experienced his first packed SBU crowd on Saturday, relished the experience.
“I think it’s truly an honor,” English remarked, “just to be in their presence, with all the great things they’ve done for this program. We hear about it every day, Coach Schmidt reiterates it to us every day: we have to be better and we have to play for everybody in this town and we have to play for the people that played before us. I think we just did that today. We just had a little extra punch.”
A pivotal moment of the lopsided run Bonaventure went on came when Vasquez committed his second foul in a span of eight seconds at the 13:33 mark of the first half. English already had two fouls; Vasquez had replaced him. Schmidt gambled by substituting English and the first-year Bonnie rewarded him with an instant three, followed by five more points over the next four minutes.
“Then he got his third foul, so I’m not sure that was a good move,” Schmidt joked about English. “He shot the ball really well. He brings a different dimension to our team, a toughness. He knows how to play and he has a high level of skill where he’s shooting four for five from threes. We didn’t have that in the first three games of the year. He brings a different dimension and we’re glad we have him.
English missed just two of his eight shots, a common theme on a day where Lofton was the only one having trouble with his jumper. Lofton made his impact as a distributor, dishing out 11 assists and turning the ball over just once, on a charge call.
The Bonnies featured Lofton, Welch, Planutis and Osunniyi or Amadi Ikpeze for most of the first half, with English and Alejandro Vasquez splitting time. That rotation proved formidable, as they made 16 of their 25 field goals and seven of their 12 three-balls.
SBU has now reached 70 points in each of its last three games.
“We have good shooters,” Schmidt said. “And it hasn’t been going well, but I think good shooters, if they keep on working at it… I thought we shot the ball much better in Florida; we shot 47, 48 percent from threes in Florida. Once you start seeing the ball go in it’s a confidence thing.
“I think we have good shooters and we showed it today. They played 2-3 zone the whole game, we knew we needed to shoot the ball, and we’ve got capable shooters.”
The Bonnies acknowledged that this game, in front of their predecessors, meant more than a regular non-conference matchup. The fans felt it too, roaring for the likes of Lanier, Billy Kalbaugh and J.R. Bremer as they were introduced at halftime as members of the program’s All-Time Team.
The experience was one the players won’t soon forget.
“Took a lot of advice in, just talking to them and talking about what it was like when they were at school here and what it took to get to where they got,” Osunniyi explained.
“Just take what they told us and bring it into the locker room and hopefully work to get where they got.”
“They paved the way for us. They did,” English reflected. “The court’s named after Bob Lanier and we play on that court every day. It’s an honor to get on that court. Everybody’s not able to play here at Bonaventure, and we were able to today in front of the greats, the Final Four team and pros. That was just a tremendous honor.”
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