By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
St. Bonaventure’s offense had begun piecing scores together after a slow start when its game against La Salle hit an unexpected turning point.
La Salle coach Ash Howard, whose bench had already been issued a warning and whose senior guard had already been charged with a technical foul, erupted at the officials after a foul called on guard Christian Ray. After Bona forward Jalen Adaway’s free throws, Howard didn’t stop arguing.
Howard kept yelling, mixing in some colorful language, all the way to the Reilly Center visitors’ locker room. He was ejected just 12 minutes and 15 seconds into the contest, with associate coach Kyle Griffin assuming head coaching duties for the remainder of the night.
The Bonnies, awarded four foul shots from the double-technical foul, took full advantage of Howard’s heave-ho. Kyle Lofton calmly made the free throws, igniting a 13-3 run over the next 3:21. Bona, which trailed by as many as nine almost 10 minutes in, never trailed again.
All five Bonnies scored in double figures as Bona won 86-73, improving its record to 10-2 overall and 8-2 in Atlantic 10 play. SBU retained its half-game lead over second place VCU, its next opponent.
The Bonnies, Lofton said, expected the ejection to motivate La Salle. “I think it was more of a reaction to where they saw their coach get ejected, so they were gonna bring the fire,” he remarked. “They were playing for their coach at that moment. We saw the energy go up, so we just rallied the guys and said, ‘Alright, we’ve gotta play now.'”
Including the free throws, Lofton scored Bona’s next nine points. He made his first 3-pointer since Jan. 13 and made a layup in that personal run, but it was his second 3-point basket that gave the Bonnies a double-digit halftime lead.
La Salle conducted a 7-3 run out of the first half’s last media timeout, bringing the Explorers within six points at the 2:11 mark. The margin was seven points before Bona’s last possession before the break, when Lofton buried another 3-pointer to make it a 45-35 halftime score.
Lofton tallied 18 points, his fourth straight game with at least 17. Seeing all three of his 3-point tries go down, his first game with that many long-range baskets in nearly a year (Feb. 11), was big for the SBU offense.
“It felt good,” Lofton commented. “I come in here and work every day, so I’m gonna just stay confident. And then I (saw) one go in, so the next one I’m thinking, ‘Alright, I’m gonna hit this one.’ And then I got a couple other looks… I got a look for catch-and-shoot. I’m just taking good shots. I’m gonna continue to do that.”
The Bonnies shot 60.9 percent from the field and 9-of-14 from 3-point territory, also sinking 21 free throws as they set their season high. Adaway made seven field goals and six free throws, recording 20 points for the second time this year. Osunniyi was perfect in five attempts from the field and hit seven foul shots, also blocking three La Salle tries.
While Bona’s offense was scorching, its defense met its goals of holding La Salle under 40 percent shooting. The Explorers grabbed 16 offensive rebounds, a blemish that led to Bona opponents reaching 70 points in back-to-back games for the first time this season. But only five of those boards came after halftime.
Sherif Kenney scored 22 for La Salle, hitting four 3-pointers, but no other Explorer scored more than 13.
“The 3-point wasn’t great; they shot 38 percent,” Schmidt allowed. “But we came back. We didn’t rebound in the first half; we did a better job in the second half. And we took care of the basketball, so those are critical parts of the game.
“We dealt with some adversity. They made some runs; we answered them.”
Jaren Holmes, like Lofton, was three-for-three from 3 in a 15-point performance. And though it took Dom Welch longer to join his classmates, he scored eight of his 10 points in the closing 20 minutes. Even Alejandro Vasquez, who appeared for 10 minutes, contributed two baskets and a free throw for six points.
It was a balanced, incendiary effort. Bona scored 69 points in the last 30 minutes after managing 17 over the first 10. After carving out 59 in a full 40 minutes against Saint Louis, the outcome served as a confidence boost.
“Coming off a loss, we just knew we had to prevail and bring it from the start,” Adaway said. “I feel like that’s what we did from top to bottom. We all just stayed into it the whole game and kept our confidence.”
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