By Jonathan Sawyer
Sports Associate Editor
Jaylen Adams scored a team high 19 points for the Bonnies, but it was fellow guard Matt Mobley who sealed the comeback victory the St. Bonaventure Bonnies Tuesday, as they defeated the Saint Joseph’s Hawks 67-63.
Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt said the Bonnies showed up the final 10 minutes with passion and urgency, which is key to winning in the Atlantic 10.
With 5:49 left to go in the game, Adams brought the Bonnies within 10 with a basket and a foul, making the free throw to make 59-49. On the next possession, Mobley would find the ball in his hands taking it up the court, saw an open lane to the basket and slammed it home for two. At that point, the Bonnies could feel the momentum favoring in their direction.
Mobley scored eight of the Bonnies last 16 points by knocking down two threes and mid-range pull up.
The ball found freshman forward Josh Ayeni as he was setting a pick for Adams. Ayeni dribbled once, pumped faked and nailed the shot that would put the Bonnies up 63-62.
Adams had the ball in his hands looking to add to the lead, and would put a three-point shot up that would go half way down and leak out. But junior guard Idris Taqqee flew in to grab the offensive rebound and finds Adams, who would be fouled and sent to the line, where he would make both free throws to extend the lead to three.
The Bonnies would eventually extend that lead to four, their largest of the game, and bring home their fifth A10 conference win.
Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt talked about his team grinding out a victory in a tough A10 game.
“It is a long season, there’s going to be days and games were you don’t play well and those are the games you need to try and pull out if your going to try to have a decent year,” Schmidt said.
Mobley said he played terrible the first 30 minutes, but just kept working at it until his first three ball fell through.
“After I saw that first three go in, it gave me confidence and I picked it up the last 10 or so minutes,” Mobley said.
Hawks head coach Phil Martelli talked about how his team wasn’t keeping up with the same tempo as they were earlier in the game.
“I thought we squeezed the ball too much in the last six minutes, instead of moving it,” Martelli said. “Not going enough down hill, I thought we tried to play around the defense particularly when they were in zone.”
“I am really proud of the guy’s effort; we didn’t play well especially in the first half. I don’t know if it was the lay-off. We were just stagnate,” Schmidt said on his teams performance in the first half of the game.
The Bonnies trailed as much as 18 points in the first half, but went into the locker room after Taqqee hit a half court shot to put the Bonnies down 42-27.
The win puts the Bonnies tied for second place in the A10 standings right behind the VCU Rams and Dayton Flyers. Up next for the Bonnies is the Rhode Island Rams as they will head to Rhode Island Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip off.
sawyerjp15@bonavenute.edu
