Courtesy of GoBonnies.com
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – In the last contest for the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team, the Bonnies led wire-to-wire in a dominating effort over Notre Dame. The script was flipped five nights later at the Reilly Center as the Bonnies needed to rally from 11 down and led for just over nine minutes of game time.
In the end, though, the result was another Bona’s victory, 71-64 over visiting Middle Tennessee. The latest triumph marks the fourth win in a row for a young squad that remained perfect at home and improved to 5-2 overall on the year.
Kyrell Luc carried the team down the stretch with multiple big shots while helping to ice the game away in the final 90 seconds at the line. He finished with 22 points to lead all scorers.
Daryl Banks III chipped in 15 points while Chad Venning tallied 13.
St. Bonaventure opened the game hot as Banks drained two quick threes for the first six points to reach 1,000 for his career.
The Bonnies went cold, though, and Middle Tennessee embarked on a 14-2 sprint to take a 24-17 advantage with 6:25 left before halftime.
MTSU would eventually push its edge to 11 before the Bonnies would claw back to a 35-29 score at intermission.
Bona took advantage of an uneven start to the second half, one filled with whistles, tying the game on a Barry Evans dunk just over four minutes in, 37-37.
That started a back-and-forth swing that saw the teams exchange the lead six times and share nine ties.
Tied, 44-44, the Blue Raiders picked up one of their 14 offensive rebounds which would result in a three-point play with 10:19 to go.
The hosts scored the next six points, finally pushing ahead for the first time in the half on free throws from Venning with 6:30 to play.
As the lead swapped side-to-side, Luc banked home a three with 2:28 remaining to push ahead by a point.
MTSU (5-3, 1-0 C-USA) tied it at 58-all as Teafale Lenard made good on one of three tries at the line following a Bonnies foul beyond the three-point line.
Luc and Banks combined for the rest of the scoring for the home team.
The biggest shot came from the sophomore guard Luc, who came through with a pull-up jumper as the shot clock ticked to two seconds, giving the Bonnies a 61-58 lead.
Evans swatted away a three attempt from MTSU to tie, allowing Banks to haul in the rebound. From there, Bona’s backcourt salted away the game at the line.
MTSU, which like Bona had entered the day on a three-game winning streak, was led by Lenard’s 16 points.
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