Courtesy of GoBonnies.com
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – On a night where a sold out Reilly Center was at full volume, St. Bonaventure made another statement sure to be heard around the Atlantic 10 as the Bonnies controlled for most of the night on the way to down Dayton, 68-59.
A three-game stretch viewed by many as the toughest on the schedule – at VCU, at Richmond and vs. Dayton – now complete, the Bonnies finished with three signature victories.
“We had a team meeting right before the VCU game and we talked about everything we felt we needed to do,” Moses Flowers said. “Ever since that meeting, we’ve been locked in. We’re all here together, we’re together on and off the court. We’ve had each other’s backs on offense and defense and stayed connected.”
The Bonnies now stand 13-11 overall and 7-4 in A-10 play while the Flyers fall to 15-9, 7-4.
“It took us a couple of minutes to get used to their speed, but I thought our guys started really defending the last 10 minutes of the first half and started executing really well,” head coach Mark Schmidt said. “We were getting the ball inside to Chad and he did a really good job. We had a great crowd and without them we probably don’t end up the victors. We showed a lot of grit and it was a performance to be proud of.”
Chad Venning had perhaps the best effort of his career in a dominating night of work.
Matched up against one of the Atlantic 10’s Player of the Year candidates in Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II, Venning was the best player on the court for most of Saturday’s game. The Bona big man finished with 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting, the lone miss being a prayer thrown up at the end of a shot clock. Venning added eight rebounds, three blocks, two steals and two assists to his stat total.
“The Reilly Center is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Venning said. “With that crowd, you feed off of it.”
He was one of four players in double figures for the Bonnies along with Flowers, who produced 13 points; Daryl Banks III (12 points, five assists); Kyrell Luc (13 points, five rebounds) and Yann Farell (11 points, three assists).
Perhaps most impressively, the Bonnies led for nearly 28 minutes of game time despite Banks, their leading scorer, not registering his first points until halfway through the second half and finally sinking his first field goal with 4:27 to go.
Still, when the Bonnies needed him, Banks stepped up – down the stretch of the second half, he knocked down seven free throws to help keep a Dayton rally attempt at bay. A three-pointer with 4:27 left, his first field goal, effectively served as the dagger.
“He doesn’t let his shooting affect other parts of his game; he had five assists and one turnover,” Schmidt said of Banks. “He gives our guys confidence. His shot will come back, but the overall game is there.”
The squads exchanged runs during a raucous first half inside a loud Reilly Center, living up to its reputation as one of the nation’s most difficult for opponents.
Dayton first grabbed control on a 13-3 sprint for a 20-13 advantage halfway into the first period, but the Bonnies responded with a 14-3 break of their own to surge ahead.
At the heart of the Bonnies uprising was Flowers along with Venning. The redshirt junior guard ignited the Bona’s crowd through a pair of threes and 10 first half points. Venning, meanwhile, conquered the paint, scoring 13 points before intermission on a perfect 6-for-6 start from the floor.
Dayton closed within a point out of the locker room as the hosts started slow, but a quick 8-0 run led by a pair of Farell threes and a Luc pull-up jumper in the lane quickly stretched the lead back to nine.
By the time Barry Evans delivered a steal and finished the play with a euro step at the basket to the delight of the home crowd, the Bonnies lead was at double digits.
St. Bonaventure led by as much as 16, but Dayton closed to a seven-point margin, 47-40, eight minutes into the second half. Bona quickly gained breathing room from a Venning layup and five Banks free throws.
Dayton got within single digits just once more – down 60-51 with 4:53 left following a Holmes free throw, Banks ended the rally with his trey on the next trip down the floor as the shot clock expired.
Bona shot 44 percent from the field for the night and committed only eight turnovers. Dayton shot 39 percent overall, but mustered just a 4-for-20 final total from beyond the arc as the Bonnies three-point defense remained stifling.
Holmes led all scorers with 21 points but finished with only two rebounds.
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