By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
The tone was set by the first media timeout, when Virginia Commonwealth had already committed six turnovers and held a 4-0 lead regardless.
The St. Bonaventure Bonnies routinely turn opponent miscues into open court layups and dunks, but they managed just 12 points off VCU’s 20 turnovers on Tuesday night. Without center Osun Osunniyi and without much outside shooting, Bona could not take advantage of its extra opportunities.
The result was a 74-51 rout at the Siegel Center, ending Bonaventure’s seven-game win streak. The Bonnies, with a few rotation players feeling under the weather, shot a season-low 33 percent from the field and were outscored 44-30 in the paint area Osunniyi normally patrols.
“We didn’t have it tonight,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt said. “We didn’t play well. Give them credit; it’s hard to play here.”
VCU stormed to a 32-10 lead over the first 13:37. Ace Baldwin Jr., who recorded just seven points against Bonaventure on Jan. 1, tallied nine in the first half in the rematch. KeShawn Curry led all scorers with 10 first-half points, making four of his six field goal attempts.
The Rams remained turnover-prone, however, with 11 at the halftime break, and Bona finished the first half on a 13-4 run to cut the deficit to 40-27. Oluwasegun Durosinmi played his first meaningful minutes of the season with Abdoul Karim Coulibaly in foul trouble and recorded both a block and an assist during SBU’s charge. Dominick Welch stabilized the offense with 10 points, including two 3-pointers, over the last 5:50 of the period.
Bona could not carry that momentum over to the second half, however, as the Rams scored 11 of the first 16 points over the first five minutes. They stretched their lead to 49-29 after Jayden Nunn, who had made fewer than a 3-pointer per game this season, hit 3s on back-to-back possessions. Bona missed each of its five 3-point tries in the second half and shot just 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) from deep overall.
Coulibaly scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds but his first Bona start lasted just 16 minutes and included four personal fouls.
VCU outscored SBU in the paint, 3-point area and the foul line. Welch, Jaren Holmes and Jalen Adaway landed in double figures but took 35 shots to score 32 combined points. Bonnies point guard Kyle Lofton turned the ball over a career-high eight times.
“In a game like this, you’ve got to get off to a good start,” Schmidt acknowledged, “and I thought we had a lot of opportunities early that we didn’t cash in on. … Some guys didn’t play the way they were capable of playing.”
Adaway and Quadry Adams were both affected by the stomach bug, which Schmidt emphasized was not an excuse for Bona’s performance but may have contributed to Adams playing just five minutes. Osunniyi’s injury certainly impacted the Rams’ paths to the basket, however.
A 23-point loss at the Siegel Center without Osunniyi was not a first-time occurrence for the Bonnies, who lost to VCU by 28 without the big man in 2020.
“That’s how they play: they attack downhill, and we didn’t really have a shot blocker to do anything with them inside,” Schmidt noted. “Give them the credit; they played good. We didn’t play very well, and that’s the result.”
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