By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
NEWARK, N.J. — The stat sheet largely belies the fact that the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team lost by 10 points to UConn on Saturday.
The Bonnies outrebounded the taller, more athletic Huskies 40-37, grabbing 11 offensive boards and tallying 13 second chance points while outscoring Dan Hurley’s group 34-26 in the paint. Bona’s defense held UConn under its season averages in scoring and field goal shooting, while Jalen Adaway recorded a third double-double in four games, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
UConn adjusted in the second half, however, rattling off a 13-0 run at one point and grabbing a 74-64 victory at Prudential Center. Bona suffered its first loss without star point guard Kyle Lofton and dropped to 8-2.
“If someone told me we were gonna outrebound UConn by three and then hold [UConn point guard R.J.] Cole to 5-for-15 [shooting], 1-for-7 for 3s, I thought we’d have a legitimate shot,” Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt remarked. “And we did, but… they made the plays when they needed to make the plays.”
Including the plays made during the unanswered push, when the Huskies regained the lead from St. Bonaventure and both Jordan Hawkins and Tyler Posley hit 3-pointers. The Bonnies started the second by scoring points on five of their first six possessions , but cooled to the tune of 0-for-4 shooting and two turnovers, which included an offensive foul on Holmes.
Bona worked its way within five points again after trailing by as many as 13, but UConn forward Andre Jackson grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed 3-pointer and found Cole for an and-one in the paint.
“Probably, right from that point on, it was over,” Schmidt acknowledged.
UConn shot eight free throws over the last 3:25, one fewer than Bona shot the entire second half. The Huskies made 18 of their 24 free throws during the contest, accounting for nearly a quarter of their points.
“I think it’s just coming down to making the little plays,” Osun Osunniyi assessed. “I think that’s all it was, just rebounding, loose balls. I think that’s all it really was for us. We had a chance and just the little plays like that, just grabbing a couple rebounds, could have gave us the chance to win the game. … We’ll see it on the film, we talked about it in the locker room: just the little plays.”
The Bonnies weathered the adversity of losing Osunniyi to foul trouble just 2:57 into the contest. Osunniyi remained out until the 4:15 mark, after which he played a little over three minutes.
Abdoul Karim Coulibaly, Osunniyi’s backup, hauled in five rebounds as the Huskies outscored Bona by just a point in the senior’s lengthy absence.
Bonaventure shot the ball markedly better in the second half, making 14 of its 30 field goals after hitting just 10 of 32 over the first 20 minutes. Holmes led all scorers with 19 points, while Dom Welch and Osunniyi contributed 15 and 10, respectively.
The Huskies, with the help of 22 bench points from Polley and Gaffney, ensured Bona did not achieve enough stops to tie or take the lead again. The Bonnies, as Schmidt said, “didn’t make enough plays” in a game that featured nine lead changes.
“We knew going in that we didn’t come here to give UConn a game; we came here to win,” Schmidt noted. “Our guys, I think, played to win and we just came up short.”
Leave a Reply