BY TOM SEIPP, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
It felt like Christmas morning at the Reilly Center on Tuesday, as the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team took the court for their season opener against in-state rival Siena.
It was an emotional start to the night, as head coach Mark Schmidt presented the Atlantic 10 Championship rings to his five seniors. The celebration last year only lasted minutes before the 2021-22 team took the floor.
It was a statement victory for the nationally ranked Bonnies, who finished the game on a 26-5 run to secure a 75-47 win. The game was closer than the score indicated, as Siena was only down 47-40 with 12 minutes remaining. Regardless, the Bonnie veterans turned it on to end the game strongly.
“I think that’s just a testament to having a veteran team,” said senior Jaren Holmes. “We know we can’t have those types of slow starts if we’re gonna beat good teams, and we want to be the best team. We can’t have those types of slow starts. In the locker room, coach got on us; we got on ourselves. We had a talk between the veteran guys and the team as a whole, and we just came out and played the right way.”
At halftime, the Bonnies lead was just four; Siena led by 10 early in the contest.
“The biggest concern, I talked to the seniors about it, being able to have the ring ceremony and unveiling of the banner, that’s emotional,” Schmidt said. “We needed to come back and refocus. I don’t think we did a good job at the beginning of the game.”
The Bonnies were able to bounce back and dominate the final 11 minutes of the game. There were only positives in that second half, outside of Osun Osunniyi having to leave the game due to an injury.
The 6-foot-10 center had a monster game: tying a career-high in blocks with seven and finishing with nine points in just 21 minutes. But, concern rose when Osunniyi had to exit the game due to an apparent back injury. He returned to the game, but after just two possessions back on the floor, he requested a sub, exited and didn’t return for the rest of the game. Schmidt said postgame it was a nagging injury for the star center.
In his replacement, Abdoul Karim Coulibaly stepped up in a big way. The Pittsburgh transfer tallied 12 points in 17 minutes. It’s already alarmingly clear that the Bonnies frontcourt depth is the best it’s been in a few years.
There was a starter missing from Tuesday’s game for St. Bonaventure. Jalen Adaway was unavailable to play in St. Bonaventure’s season-opener due to “a minor NCAA rules infraction.” The school announced the suspension would be for just one game and he will be eligible to play in all further contests this season. In the press release, St. Bonaventure announced they “respect the NCAA ruling and will have no further comment.”
Kyle Lofton and Jaren Holmes both led all scorers with 17 points each; Dominick Welch had 11.
The Bonnies will return to action Sunday to face their second straight MAAC opponent, Canisus, at 5 p.m.
seipptw19@bonaventure.edu
