By Anthony Gannon
Sports Editor
For the third straight time, the Bonnies beat the Siena Saints to claim the Franciscan Cup Tuesday night in a 58-43 win on national television. Redshirt senior Marquise Simmons led the team with the second double-double of his career. Bonaventure extended their record to 5-2 on the season, while Siena fell to 2-7.
Not much went wrong for the Bonnies in the second half when their 8-25 shooting from the field overcame Siena’s 19.4 field goal percentage. Bonaventure roughed it with the Saints by forcing 30 points in the paint against Siena’s 18.
“It was my job to keep the ball out of the post tonight,” Simmons said. “And that’s what I tried to do.”
Senior Demitrius Conger chipped in 14 points going 4-for-11 from the field, and senior Chris Johnson put in 10 behind 4-for-12 shooting. Conger and Johnson grabbed eight and seven rebounds, respectively. Conger’s total was good for second on the team after Simmons’ team-high 10.
Charlon Kloof scored eight points and stuffed the stat sheet with one assist, block, steal and rebound each. The junior captain captivated the Reilly Center with an echoing dunk with 12:03 left in the second half for his fourth straight point to put the Bonnies up five, 43-38. All that happened less than a minute after being subbed back into the game. Conger assisted Kloof on the dunk after Youssou Ndoye picked up his fourth steal of the year and passed it out to sophomore guard Jordan Gathers, who then fed Conger one of his four assists.
“There were two keys going in to this game, we have to control Hymes and we have to do a good job on Anosike inside,” Coach Mark Schmidt said. “And I thought Charlon did a great job with defending Hymes. The point guard initiates everything. He initiates your defense, he initiates your offense. When you play full-court man-to-man it’s the point guard who pressures the ball and keeps it in front of the defense and Charlon did that very well tonight.”
Kloof’s dunk also effectively capped Bonaventure’s necessary offensive output to win the Franciscan Cup as a lid formed around Siena’s basket once they reached 43 points on a Trenity Burdine jumper with 3:42 left in the game. After giving up six points in the first 5:17 of the second half, the Bonnies’ defense held the Saints to only 10 points over the final 14:43 in the game.
“I think the first reason I came to America was because there are such great guards,” Kloof said. “And it’s always a challenge to play against great guards consistently. My coaches believe in me that I can slow them down so I enjoy doing that.”
The Saints were determined to keep the Bonnies from the three-peat, but couldn’t muster enough firepower despite Trenity Burdine’s career-high 16 points and second-leading rebounder in the nation O.D. Anosike’s game-high 14 boards. One of the few places the Saints bested the Bonnies was in rebounding. Siena grabbed 40 total rebounds and the Bonnies only managed to bring down 36. Siena also dished out 12 assists against the Bonnies’ 8.
St. Bonaventure displayed markedly better form from the free throw line Tuesday after only shooting 56.0% against Ohio last week and 57.9% against Buffalo.
“Yeah the last couple of practices my assistants have been responsible for foul shooting,” Schmidt said. “So the last few days I took control of it and gave them (the assistants) three point shooting.”
There weren’t many chances for dramatics in the second half against the Saints but the Reilly Center saw some fireworks as time ran out in the first half. Demitrius Conger caught the ball in the right of the key, ran around a defender into the lane, gathered himself and one-handed jammed the ball through the cylinder as the buzzer sounded.
Kloof and sophomore Jordan Gathers also threw down explosive slams that brought the Wolf Pack to their feet.
“You want guys that are self-motivated,” Schmidt said. “Most guys aren’t self-starters. Charlon’s a self-starter and you cherish that. It’s one of the reasons why you’re in the business.”
Eric Mosley also picked up one steal while providing the Bonnies’ only three-point threat for the night. Mosley’s two threes on seven tries were the Bonnies’ only long-range bombs to drop in despite a total of 20 Bonaventure attempts.
Matt Wright scored five points for the Bonnies as he went 3 for 3 from the charity stripe. Youssou Ndoye dropped through one free throw on his only trip to the line for the night after only 12 minutes of play in his second game off the bench.
“When you rebound, play strong defense and take care of the basketball you win games,” Schmidt said. “And that’s what we did tonight.”
