By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
ST. BONAVENTURE — The St. Bonaventure Bonnies got back to basics. When the basics didn’t finish the job, they broke out some theatrics.
Bona led the University at Buffalo by as much as 13 points with 11:38 remaining, but Buffalo stormed back to tie the game on Maceo Jack’s 3-pointer with 29 seconds left. SBU senior forward Jalen Adaway played hero, draining an open 3-pointer at the top of the perimeter to regain the lead with 1.3 seconds remaining. Adaway scored 16 points, none bigger than the final three.
The Bonnies, with star point guard Kyle Lofton in a walking boot, improved their record to 7-1 with a 68-65 victory in front of 4,860 boisterous fans at the Reilly Center.
“It’s priceless,” Adaway said of the shot, which led to a court storming from the SBU student body. “I’m still trying to just gather my thoughts and how happy I am… and how big of a moment it really was.”
The Bonnies, Adaway agreed, put themselves in position to win the game with a more fierce defensive mindset than they had exhibited in their previous two games, 80-plus-point outputs from Coppin State and Northern Iowa. Bona won the rebounding battle 42-34, securing 11 offensive rebounds and tallying 10 second chance points.
Rochester native Jeenathan Williams still stood out for Buffalo, scoring 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting, but the Bulls were shooting under 40 percent for most of the contest and made just seven of their 24 3-point attempts. Buffalo also shot just nine free throws; Clemson is the only Bona opponent to shoot fewer this season.
“I think the past couple games, we haven’t been fighting as much as we possibly could,” Adaway admitted. “And I think a lot of us just saw with Kyle out, we’ve gotta give more. I think moving forward, we really just have to keep doing that. We can’t leave anything on the table to start the game, and if we have good starts, we’re gonna have a pretty high chance to get those wins.”
Bona did start well, closing the first half on a 12-2 run to grab a 35-29 lead at the break. Twelve of those 35 points were scored by bench players, including Linton Brown’s 10-point career high. Brown, who missed Wednesday’s win over Coppin State with an illness, made two 3-pointers and played a shade under 20 minutes. Osun Osunniyi also feasted in the first half, making six of his seven field goal attempts for 12 first-half points.
The Bonnies extended their halftime lead and led by 11 with 3:05 to play after Welch, who hadn’t shot well, got his second 3-pointer of the game to fall. Buffalo called timeout and broke out a defensive press that forced three turnovers in 11 seconds. The Bulls conducted a 13-2 run in under two minutes on the strength of three 3-pointers, opening up the potential for overtime if Bona could not score.
Adaway screened for Osunniyi off the ball and lost defender Josh Mballa, who switched onto Osunniyi. None of the Bulls followed Adaway, who popped to the top of the key, accepted the pass from Holmes and confidently drained the shot. Williams’s half-court heave at the buzzer fell short.
“We had ‘Shoon setting a screen, rolling to the rim, so that was an option,” Adaway explained. “Also with Jaren, just penetrating and possibly getting a shot or a layup. We knew if my guy was gonna help the roll, the shot was gonna be there. Just had to take advantage of it.”
“It’s always good to work on things when you win,” Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt acknowledged. “The press offense has to get better, and all that stuff… But to be able to come back and execute the play the way it’s supposed to be run and then hit the shot, as I told Jalen in the locker room, he’s always in the gym; he deserved to hit that shot. When you put yourself in the position, and you put all that work in, you wanna have that shot.
“It was all net. It was perfect.”
Holmes’s assist was his eighth helper to just one turnover, a laudable performance at point guard with just two days of practice in between Lofton’s injury and the next game. His distribution outweighed a 3-of-17 shooting night and earned Schmidt’s praise.
Holmes became the sixth Bonnie since 2010 to record eight or more assists in a single game while committing no more than one turnover, joining Lofton, Jaylen Adams, Charlon Kloof, Matthew Wright and Ogo Adegboye.
“I thought Jaren was tremendous, playing out of position,” Schmidt remarked. “He’s a warrior: 40 minutes, with all that pressure, he had eight assists and one turnover.”
The pressure was evident: Bona, charged with its first loss last Saturday and winning in unimpressive, consequential fashion against Coppin State, was hosting a rival without its floor general for the first time. The result, for Bona, was a jubilant locker room that now has the confidence it can win even when shorthanded.
A locker room, after a blowout, close defeat and COVID cancelation, that had collectively defeated UB for the first time.
“We have tough, mentally-tough guys; we have team guys,” Schmidt commented. “We’re a wounded animal- one of our leaders is hurt. And sometimes when you’re a wounded animal, you’re desperate. And we were desperate. We played hard today.
“As I told the four seniors, they’ve gotta play better. Everybody’s gotta step up their game… we did that, and it just shows that we’ve got quality players, quality kids and kids that, when given the opportunity, they can have some success and they can help us win.”
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