Lofton takes over late as Bonnies fend off upset-minded Canisius

By CHUCKIE MAGGIO

ST. BONAVENTURE — Kyle Lofton was convinced, for the second time, that he’d missed a free throw.

“Ah!” Lofton yelled as the ball left his hands with 1:29 remaining on Sunday evening. The shot, however, swished through the net to extend St. Bonaventure’s lead to 65-58.

Lofton was in the middle of taking over Bona’s offense and erasing, to some extent, a forgettable first half. The Bonnies, in turn, found themselves avoiding an upset defeat that would have sullied their spot in the national conversation ahead of next week’s Charleston Classic. They did so without star center Osun Osunniyi, who has been limited by a lingering back issue, for over 26 minutes of action.

SBU prevailed 69-60 in front of 3,943 fans at the Reilly Center, improving to 2-0 after the first week of the season. Lofton scored all but two of his 17 points in the second half, tallying 11 points over the final 8:34. The Bonnies trailed 51-46 before that timeframe and outscored the Golden Griffins 23-9 during that stretch.

“I feel like I’m more aggressive down the stretch when my team, they look at me like, ‘Alright, we need you,’” Lofton assessed. “Every time at the end of shot clocks, it’s like, ‘Kyle, go get the ball. Get the ball.’ I don’t want to let my team down.”

Lofton and Holmes also had 17 points apiece against Siena, another contest in which the Bonnies started slow before regaining the form expected of a talented veteran team.

St. Bonaventure managed just 26 first-half points and trailed by five entering halftime, a product of unkempt and inefficient basketball. Bona, which turned the ball over just six times total in its opener with Siena, committed three turnovers before the first media timeout. SBU turned the ball over 11 times during the first 20 minutes and shot 1-of-10 from 3-point range in that span. Lofton missed his first seven field goal attempts, while Osunniyi departed with 2:32 remaining in the first half and did not return.

Undermanned at the center position, Bona struggled to rebound. The Golden Griffins grabbed 15 offensive boards, the most an SBU team has surrendered to a non-conference opponent since the last time it played Canisius. Reggie Witherspoon’s team, which featured 6-foot-10 big man Jacco Fritz both times, grabbed 16 offensive rebounds to help defeat the Bonnies in 2019.

The Bonnies didn’t truly overcome their Little Three rival until they started defending and rebounding up to their standard, holding Canisius to just 12 points over the last eight minutes. The Griffins shot 32.3 percent (10-of-31) from the field in the second half, while Bona, buoyed by a clean, three-turnover second half, shot over 50 percent (14-of-27).

The run started with a Lofton layup that cut Bona’s deficit to five points with 6:25 left. Holmes then intercepted a Siem Uijtendaal pass and drew a foul at the other end, splitting the free throws. Lofton made it two steals in a row for the SBU defense, jumping in front of Jordan Henderson’s pass and dishing to Holmes, who slammed home an and-one. Welch blocked a Henderson layup, leading to a Jalen Adaway layup that gave Bona its first lead of the night.

Lofton even hit his first 3-pointer of the season with 4:01 left to regain the lead, an advantage Bona never relinquished.

“We started playing the way we’re capable of playing,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt remarked. “Now we need to have it consistently, that effort consistently. If we get that, then we have the chance to be pretty good.”

Abdoul Karim Coulibaly saw most of the minutes in Osunniyi’s place, scoring seven points on 3-of-6 field goal shooting and blocking three shots in 24 minutes. Oluwasegun Durosinmi logged two important minutes after Coulibaly picked up his fourth personal foul, grabbing a rebound and carrying a plus-seven plus-minus while he was on the court.

Adaway scored 16 points and made seven of his 12 shots from the field in his season debut. Though Bona guard Dominick Welch was not an offensive force, attempting just five shots, he did finish with seven points, five rebounds and three blocks.

Holmes did not hesitate when asked if the Bonnies were expecting as much of a game as Canisius provided. After a shaky weekend for the Atlantic 10 Conference, in which perennial powers like VCU and Dayton dropped home games to Wagner and UMass-Lowell, respectively, his words rang even truer.

The general public may not have foreseen a single-digit final score out of the Reilly Center, but the Bonnies were prepared for a fight.

“It’s college basketball,” Holmes commented. “Anybody can be beat on any given night. Canisius came to play, and we won the game today. We need to get better overall; that’s what this shows today. And we’re going to.”