By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team found redemptive power in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament as Tuesday night turned into Wednesday morning.
Each of the Bonnies’ five starters reached double figures as they outscored Colorado by 11 points in the second half and defeated the Buffaloes 76-68 at Boulder’s CU Arena. Bona advanced to the second round, where it will meet the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman, Okla. this weekend.
“Just proud of dealing with adversity in the last week or so and getting this draw and coming out here,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt said. “Everything was against us, but I thought our guys showed a lot of maturity and really did a great job bouncing back.”
Bonaventure (21-9) made 52.7 percent of its field goal attempts and half of its 3-pointers, making 10 3s for the first time since Feb. 16 against UMass. The Bonnies made 15 of their 27 shots in the second half after trailing 39-36 at halftime. Few shots were more important than point guard Kyle Lofton’s jumper to extend the lead to four points with 1:12 remaining.
The Bonnies also flipped the script from last Friday’s late-game lapse against Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal round, making all four of their free throws in the final minute to ice the game.
Lofton, who missed the last two free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining against the Billikens, was adamant about playing in the NIT even as Schmidt and his staff left the option open for the players to decline. The Atlantic 10 Third Team member scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting and dished eight assists to just two turnovers.
“Mentally, from the last game, I needed this game,” Lofton remarked. “My teammates knew that. They asked us, did we want to play, and I told them right away, ‘Yeah, I need another game under my belt.’ And we all came together like, ‘Let’s play.’ Now we’re here, so we want to win it all.”
SBU showed early on that this NIT appearance would not resemble the program’s last. Unlike the home loss to Wagner in 2016, when the Bonnies were still smarting from NCAA Tournament exclusion and fell behind early, the current squad scored 10 of the game’s first 12 points. Lofton and Dominick Welch highlighted the run with back-to-back 3-point baskets. Jaren Holmes hit a 3-pointer as well, part of a 13-point night.
“We attacked. We went downhill,” Schmidt explained. “We hit some shots from the perimeter that made them come out… we’ve been struggling from behind the arc. But I thought we really attacked the basket and when we play downhill, we’re a pretty good offensive team. When we play sideline-to-sideline, we’re not very good. … Our guys really executed on the offensive end.”
Bona did not trail by more than five points in the first half, despite the taller Buffaloes holding a 17-11 rebounding edge in the period and grabbing four offensive boards. Colorado did, however, make its first three shots out of the locker room to open the second half on a 7-0 run and jump ahead by 10 points. Bona saw its resilience tested again and answered with a 10-0 run to regain the lead with 14:45 remaining.
Jalen Adaway was once again Bona’s leading scorer, producing 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including a 3-for-5 clip from 3-point range. Adaway also swiped two of the team’s five steals. The play that best summarized how well Bona’s offense worked all evening occurred when Adaway lobbed a pass to center Osun Osunniyi and the ball found the basket, putting SBU ahead 64-60 with 6:13 to play.
“It was definitely a lob intended for ‘Shoon,” Adaway admitted. “I was pretty gassed at that point and I saw how the defense was playing me, and I saw that ‘Shoon was open. I tried to get it to him, but I knew I left it short, so I kind of just adjusted mid-shot. And thankfully, it went in.”
The teams traded baskets and were tied as late as the 2:16 mark, but Bonaventure prevented Colorado from scoring for the remainder of the contest. The Buffaloes missed their last five shots, missing 17 of their 27 field goal attempts over the final 20 minutes.
Evan Battey scored 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting in what was likely his last collegiate game, and Keeshawn Barthelemy led the team with 15 points in 27 minutes off the bench. The Bona defense, however, held Buffs star Jabari Walker to six points on 2-of-10 shooting; Walker’s scoring average was 14.9 points an outing entering the postseason.
Osunniyi blocked four shots in the victory, increasing his program-record block total to 298.
“We got some stops, and I thought ‘Shoon did a great job blocking shots,” Schmidt acknowledged. “And the shots that he didn’t block, they were a little bit intimidated and didn’t go up. He’s the big difference, but I thought we did a better job of keeping the ball in front of us in the second half, especially the last 10 minutes of the game.
“We got down by 10, and offensively, I thought we executed well throughout the game, but defensively, I thought the last 10 minutes we kept the ball in front of us a little bit more. We were more disciplined.”
The win marked Bona’s first in the NIT since 1995 over Southern Mississippi and second consecutive postseason triumph over the Pac-12, following the 2018 NCAA Tournament First Four game over UCLA.
SBU is now two wins away from a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT’s final four.
“We knew we left a lot on the table. We had a lot we were hoping to do, just in terms of the conference tournament and having hopes of winning it,” Adaway noted. “It just fueled us, not being able to do that. We just translated it into today’s game, being confident.
“Trust in our abilities; trust in our shot; trust in each other. I think it showed really well.”
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