Courtesy of GoBonnies.com
KINGSTON, R.I. – An 11-0 run in the final minutes gave the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team the lead with 33 seconds left, but Rhode Island’s Ishmael Leggett made good on both attempts at the line following a Bonnies foul to send the Rams to a 68-67 victory Wednesday night at the Ryan Center.
St. Bonaventure kept Rhode Island off the board over nearly three and a half minutes, making a furious rally that saw the visitors erase a 11-point deficit in the waning moments.
Daryl Banks III put the exclamation mark on Bona’s rally with a traditional three-point play, tying the game with his runner in the lane before giving the Bonnies the lead, 67-66, with 33 seconds left.
Unfortunately for the Bonnies, a whistle on the defensive end proved doubly costly – not only did it send Leggett to the line, but it also resulted in the fifth foul on Moses Flowers.
St. Bonaventure (8-9, 2-2 A-10) had three chances for the win in the final trip down the floor, but couldn’t get a shot to fall as time expired.
“We showed some character; we didn’t give in, we made some stops and some big buckets late, but those are things you need to do for 40 minutes,” St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said. “We fouled at the end and that was one of too many mistakes to overcome. We had a couple good shots at the end, they just didn’t go in.”
Kyrell Luc led the team with 20 points, adding nine assists and five steals in an all-around effort. Flowers produced 15 points off the bench for the Bonnies.
Both teams started slow, as one might have predicted from a matchup between two clubs that have each experienced struggles on the offensive end at times in the early season.
St. Bonaventure started 5-for-20 from the floor, but Rhode Island never pulled away by more than eight during the opening half. Further complicating matters, both Banks and Chad Venning picked up two fouls before the game was seven minutes old, including Venning being whistled for his third before intermission.
Luc put himself into double-figure scoring before the break, though, with he and Moses Flowers providing the scoring spark as the Bonnies pulled within a bucket at halftime.
The sophomore point guard turned on the jets for Bona’s first score of the second half and a tie game, but Rhody soon had its largest lead of the day, 44-35, with 13:20 to play.
The visitors closed within five again, 46-41, two minutes later following a Flowers dunk and low post moves from Venning, but again the Rams squelched the Bonnies efforts to gain traction.
Rhode Island (6-10, 2-2) took its first lead of double digits at the 11-minute mark, but Bona clawed back within two possessions following a pair of Anquan Hill dunks.
The Rams took their largest lead with 5:08 remaining, leading by 11 when the Bonnies roared back.
Leggett paced all scorers with 23 points, also hauling in 14 rebounds. Rhode Island led on the boards, 44-36.
“Against any team on the road it’s hard to come back and we keep putting ourselves in that position. We battled back and just came up a little short,” Schmidt said. “The first two offensive plays of the game they had two offensive rebounds and put-backs; we need to do a better job of rebounding. We got within two and then give up an offensive rebound and a shot and then it’s four, that’s just something you can’t do. Leggett is their leading offensive rebounder and he got four tonight. That is stuff we can control and we didn’t do that.”
Banks finished with 12 points and three assists with Venning recording 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Bonnies are back in action Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. vs. Richmond on USA Network.
Leave a Reply