This was definitely a game worthy of a few new adjectives. St. Bonaventure came back from a seemingly insurmountable deficit to defeat VCU 67-62. Tuesday’s game at the Reilly Center saw the host Bonnies improve to 13-7 (4-4). VCU had a five game win streak ended and is now 13-8 (5-3).
Possessions: 65
Offensive efficiency: St. Bona 103, VCU 95
Four Factors:
| St. Bona | VCU | |
| eFG Pct. | 40 | 50 |
| FT Rate | 39 | 21 |
| OREB Pct. | 39 | 16 |
| TO Rate | 14 | 20 |
Tale of two halves. VCU coach Ryan Odom, as well as a number of observers probably wondered. ‘What the Dickens was going on’. With the Rams leading 39-19 with just over two minutes left in the first half, Kenpom.com gave the Bonnies a 10% chance to win.
VCU came out on fire. The Rams led by Max Shulga, canned six of their first nine from beyond the arc. Shulga hit six of his first seven field goal attempts, including five of five from downtown. To their credit, the Bonnies didn’t panic. Down 20 they simply aimed to get back a singular possession at a time.
“We knew if we could just keep chipping away, we knew we had a lot of time left,” Bona senior guard Daryl Banks told gobonnies.com. “Cutting it to 13 (Bonnies trailed 39-26 at intermission) was huge, “ Banks added. “Our goal was to cut it to around 10 and we knew we were good.”
Bonnies scored the last seven points of the opening half to get the deficit to 13. Momentum carried into the second half. All told it was a 21-5 Bona run that began in the first half and carried past the break. A run that trimmed the visitors’ lead to two possessions and brought the Reilly Center crowd into a frenzy.
“The key to the game was the last two minutes of the first half where we got some stops and that gave us a fighting chance,” Bonnie coach Mark Schmidt told gobonnies.com. “We persevered, we fought. When you’re knocked down , you’ve got to fight-and that’s we did today.”
Defense and rebounding. VCU shot 54% the first half including 10-15 (67%) from three. Second half was a 26% performance. Most significant was 1 of 14 for 7% from three. Bonnies did a much better job locating shooters, limiting open looks and contesting shots.
In the rebounding department, it was a 43-30 edge in the Bonnies favor. On the offensive glass they held a 16-5 difference accounting for an excellent 39% offensive rebounding percentage. Little surprise the Bonnies outscored the Rams 16-3 in second chance points. That difference told the story of this outcome.
To foul or not. In a game with five ties and three lead changes, two free throws gave the Bonnies a three point lead with seconds remaining. Now. with VCU in possession, the age old question came up. Should Schmidt foul to prevent a three point attempt or play it out on defense ? The Bona mentor opted for the latter. VCU did get two looks from three, one an open one on a kick out off an offensive rebound, both failed to find the mark and the Bonnies held on.
Kempom.com MVP: Max Shulga. The 6’5” senior who came with Odom from Utah State, scored a game high 25 points. Shulga was lights out from deep burying six of nine. He added four rebounds.
Both teams had four in double figures. Besides Shulga, Joe Bamisile had 13, Zeb Jackson 11 and Kuany Kuany 10. Jackson was the Rams’ leading rebounder with six.
Daryl Banks came off the bench to lead the Bonnies with 15 points. The senior guard was a perfect eight for eight from the charity stripe. Mika Adams-Woods scored 13, also in relief. Chad Venning and Assa Essamvous had 11 each. Charles Pride scored four points but had a big night overall. Pride enjoyed game-highs in rebounding with 10, six on the offensive end, and assists with five.
Notes: Points in the paint saw the Bonnies enjoy a 30-18 advantage. They also outscored VCU in points off turnovers, 16-9. Those areas were two points of emphasis per Schmidt.
Bonnies shot 36% from the floor, 5 of 22 (23%) from three. As previously noted, offensive rebounding offset any deficiency shooting from the field.
Bonnies led for less than 120 seconds, 1:51 to be exact. They outscored VCU 41-23 following the break and most important, they led with the clock showing 0:00.
Game brought up memories from three years back. Bonnies trailed VCU by 15 at the half before rallying to win. The game was played at a near empty Reilly Center due to Covid restrictions. Bonnies went on to defeat VCU in March that year to claim the A10 Tournament title.
This was the Bonnies largest comeback victory since battling back from 16 down to defeat Clemson in November of 2021.
Bonnies swept the VCU season series for the first time. They have won six of the last seven against the Rams and three straight.
Next up for VCU is a home date on Saturday against rival Richmond. For the Bonnies it’s a trip to Dayton to face the nationally-ranked league leading Flyers in an ESPN2 national TV telecast. Anthony Grant’s group, featuring DaRon Holmes, is number two in A10 offensive efficiency with 112 and the defensive leader with 94.
“Halftime I didn’t go crazy. We have a mature team and they knew you can’t win if a team hits ten three pointers. Second half we limited them to one.” – Mark Schmidt
