Friday night lights out. St. Bonaventure broke a two game slide in impressive fashion. The Bonnies defeated Saint Joseph’s 91-72. Friday’s game at Reilly Center, before a national TV audience plus a vocal and animated crowd, saw the Bonnies improve to 12-7 (3-4). Coach Billy Lange’s Hawks are now 13-7 (3-4).
Possessions: 67
Offensive Efficiency: St. Bona 136, Saint Joseph’s 107
Four Factors:
| St. Bona | Saint Joseph’s | |
| eFG Pct. | 68 | 60 |
| FT Rate | 13 | 3 |
| OREB Pct. | 23 | 31 |
| TO Rate | 10 | 25 |
Responding to runs. Bonnies showed a great deal of resiliency during the course of the night. Saint Joseph’s started on a roll. Good ball movement resulted in several wide open looks from deep. The Hawks capitalized and built an early eight point lead. The Bonnies responded. Led by Moses Flowers and Daryl Banks, the Bonnies went on a 14-2 run to close the first half with a four point lead.
Saint Joseph’s started the second half strong regaining the lead. The three point advantage soon expired as the Bonnies answered and never trailed again, thanks to a 38-18 closing run. In light of the last two outings, this was more than snapping a losing streak.
“It was just a great bounce back win,” Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt told gobonnies.com. “The guys showed a lot of character. You are not going to play great all the time. You are going to have adversity and tonight our guys fought through it.”
Notable numbers.Hawks were perfect from the line, two for two. Bonnies shot seven of eight. The fast moving game saw a total of only 15 fouls whistled. Eight against Saint Joseph’s while the Bonnies had seven.
Hawks were forced into 17 turnovers for an exceedingly high 25% turnover rate. Bonnies committed seven while enjoying a huge 29-7 advantage in points off turnovers.
Kenpom.com MVP: Daryl Banks. The Bona fifth-year guard came off the bench to score a game high 29 points. Banks shot 7 of 11 from beyond the arc while adding five assists.
“Daryl was struggling as of late,” Schmidt said. “Tonight he couldn’t have played better.”
Additional players of note:
Moses Flowers. Bona guard scored 23 points (10 of 17 from the floor) while handing out four assists. Flowers was also lauded by Schmidt for stepping up and playing great after his recent struggles.
Chad Venning. Big man posted 21 points with five rebounds for the Bonnies. Venning was 10 of 13 despite facing constant double teams on receiving the ball in the low post.
Cameron Brown. Senior guard paced Saint Joseph’s with 16 points. Brown canned a team-high four from long range.
Erik Reynolds. Finished with 12 points for the Hawks. The junior guard added four rebounds and had no turnovers in 33 minutes.
Lynn Greer. Saint Joseph’s junior guard scored 12 points. Greer was 6 of 10 getting most his points in transition.
Chris Essandoko. The 7’ big man battled Venning inside. Only a freshman, Essandoko has that proverbial ‘upside’ and will e a player to watch down the road. He scored 14 points with seven rebounds. Essandoko even stepped outside to bury two three pointers.
Barry Evans. Another impressive and valuable performance by the 6’8” Bona sophomore. Evans scored six points, tied Essandoko for game rebounding honors with seven and tied Xavier Brown of the Hawks in the assist category with six. Once again, Evans did a number of things not accounted for in the box score.
“Barry was our MVP,” Schmidt said. “It’s not all about scoring, it’s rebounding, defending, getting deflections. Barry did the blue collar stuff.”
Notes: Banks’ 29 points were the most by a Bonnies player this season. His career high is 36 also against Saint Joseph’s last February.
Bonnies had 23 assists on 36 field goals, an excellent 64% assist rate.
Bonnies shot 58% from the floor, 12 of 27 for 44% from beyond the arc. Hawks were 51% including 10 of 24 for a 42% showing from three.
The Bonnies’ 12 three pointers tied the season-high set in the win over VCU on January 3rd.
Largely due to Banks’ numbers, Bonnies had a 42-6 edge in bench points.
Despite the difference in the final score, the game had nine ties and 11 lead changes.
This was Saint Joseph’s largest deficit in a loss all season. The previous was an eight points (96-88) in an overtime setback at Kentucky.
VCU visits Reilly Center on Tuesday. The Rams posted a 63-58 victory at Davidson on Saturday. They are 5-2 in A10 play and currently riding a five game winning streak. It will be the Bonnies’ second straight home contest.
“You want to win eight or nine at home and steal three or four on the road. We were coming off two straight (road) losses and our guys responded.” – Mark Schmidt
