By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Kyle Lofton flexed his muscles, possibly as pleased with wrestling away a jump ball to give his team possession as anything else he achieved Wednesday evening.
Lofton was already prepared to reach a milestone against the University of Massachusetts, eclipsing 4,000 career minutes five minutes into the contest. The senior point guard made more history by dishing 17 assists, a single-game program record. He fittingly broke the record, previously shared by Jaylen Adams and Marques Green, on an alley-oop to center and prep school teammate Osun Osunniyi.
“I didn’t know until we got in the locker room,” Lofton remarked. “They said I had 17 assists, I’m like, ‘Wow.’ It didn’t feel like I was doing it. I knew I had a couple of lobs but 17? I didn’t think I had that many.”
The Bonnies rolled in the second half, making 18 of their 26 field goal attempts and overcoming a one-point halftime deficit to win 83-71 in front of 3,452 at the Reilly Center. They improved to 16-7 and 8-4 in the Atlantic 10 behind, among other factors, Lofton’s passing and a career-high 23 points from Dominick Welch.
“Offensively, we couldn’t have done better,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt assessed. “We did a great job against their zone, and even in the first half, we were getting the looks… we were just missing those little ones. We knew if we could continue to run our offense we’d be able to get some decent looks and hopefully knock them down.”
The Minutemen, true to form, launched 33 of their 57 field goal attempts from 3-point range. They hit nine first-half 3s, while their zone held Bonaventure scoreless for over four minutes, and coach Matt McCall’s team secured a one-point halftime advantage.
T.J. Weeks Jr. had an eventful first return to his birthplace, recording 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including five 3-pointers. Noah Fernandes and Rich Kelly each chipped in 14 points, combining for seven triples.
But UMass held the second half lead for just 29 seconds. The Bonnies made baskets on six of their first eight offensive possessions out of the locker room, including two Welch 3-pointers and a lob from Lofton to Adaway, to take a 50-45 lead with 15:36 remaining.
Welch made seven of his nine shots from beyond the arc, also a career high, and grabbed 10 rebounds to complete his eighth career double-double. He passed J.R. Bremer for third on the program’s career 3-pointers list, making the three he needed to pass the Bonaventure Athletics Hall of Famer in just six minutes of game action.
“Our guys did a good job of getting to the spots that you need to get to when they’re playing the 2-3 zone,” Schmidt commented. “Then even when they came out of it, I thought we did a good job of attacking the paint when they’re in their man-to-man.
“When you shoot the ball well, and Dom’s really shooting the ball well right now, it helps break down that zone.”
Osunniyi picked up his third personal foul just 2:54 into the second half, a typically precarious position for the Bonnies, but SBU went on a 13-0 run and managed to outscore the Minutemen 23-9 while he sat. Backup center Abdoul Karim Coulibaly contributed six points and dished two assists in 15 minutes, the most he has logged since Dec. 17 against Virginia Tech.
“He did really well… I thought he did a really good job,” Schmidt said of Coulibaly. “A couple finishes. I thought he did a good job on the ball-screen defense. I thought he was a big positive for us tonight.”
Schmidt likened Bona’s paint dominance, a 38-18 advantage down low, to offensive and defensive line play in football on the heels of last Sunday’s Super Bowl. While UMass attempted a 3-pointer on most of its offensive possessions, the Bonnies made more two-point baskets in the second half (13) than the Minutemen did all game (nine).
Osunniyi scored 14 points on mostly slam dunks. He also blocked a couple shots and corralled five rebounds, the Aaron Donald in Schmidt’s football analogy.
“As I told the team, you look at the Super Bowl; with all those skilled guys, the game of football is won in the trenches,” Schmidt noted. “The game of basketball is won in the paint, and it shows here. We lost the 3-point battle, but if you win the paint, you have a legitimate chance. That’s what you’ve gotta do.”
The Bonnies have been focused on having fun, which for them includes a healthy dose of back-and-forth with the opposition. Despite not playing UMass in two years due to a pandemic cancellation last season, the long-time rivals made up for lost time when Lofton and Fernandes were hit with double technical fouls with 10:42 to play.
The trash talk continued too long for the officials’ liking, but for Lofton it was all part of a memorable night.
“I feel like, if we’re doing that, it’s like we’re locked in to the game,” Lofton explained. “If we’re not doing that, we’re just going through the motions. It’s nothing personal; we’re all having fun at the end of the day, both teams. I think that really helps us get motivated and brings energy to the team.”
Lofton had an abundance of energy on Wednesday, and it helped him carve another place in the program record book.
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