BY NATHAN SOLOMON, SPORTS EDITOR
On Jan. 20, 2021, a hot VCU team, led by eventual Atlantic 10 player of the year and NBA draft pick Bones Hyland, stormed into the Reilly Center and to a 40-25 halftime lead.
The Bonnies, however, weren’t ready to fall on their home floor. Forcing Hyland into foul trouble with an aggressive approach on both ends of the floor, St. Bonaventure outscored the Commodores by 31 in the second half, winning 70-54.
Yet, nobody was there to watch it. Under COVID-19 protocols, fans weren’t permitted to attend men’s basketball games in the Reilly Center.
“It was terrible,” coach Mark Schmidt said. “The crowds are everything. College basketball is about the university, about the alumni, it’s about that Saturday night at the Reilly Center. It wasn’t like it last year”.
However, that all changed on Tuesday night. The Bonnies beat Siena in front of 4,617 raucous fans, playing in front of an audience in a regular season home game for the first time since March 4, 2020.
“It was fabulous,” Schmidt said. “Kudos to the students [and] the community to come out and support us like they did. Hopefully that will continue, but that’s the Reilly Center. There’s nothing better”.
“The fans were great,” senior guard Jaren Holmes said. “It felt like the good old Reilly Center again – live, rowdy, the best fans in the nation and the best gym in the nation”.
Pregame, players from last season’s team received A-10 championship rings at center court, and two banners were unveiled representing team accomplishments. One banner, placed above the Hall of Fame room, acknowledges St. Bonaventure’s A-10 regular-season title and A-10 tournament title. The other hangs in the rafters, honoring an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
“Being able to have the ring ceremony and the unveiling of banner, that’s emotional,” Schmidt said.
“It was just an unreal experience,” Holmes said. “Just receiving the rings we’ve been waiting so long to have, I almost wanted to cry. I was like ‘am I soft if I shed a tear?’”
St. Bonaventure started off slow against Siena, trailing by 10 at one point in the first half. However, a dominant second half vaulted the Bonnies to a 75-47 victory, sending Bona nation home happy in the first regular-season game with fans in attendance in 516 days.
“It was a good victory,” Schmidt said. “We’ve talked about all summer [and] all fall that on November 9 at 9 o’clock, we want to be 1-0, and the guys came through”.
Fortunately for Bonaventure fans, they won’t have to wait much longer to see the team back in action. The Bonnies host Little Three rival Canisius on Sunday with tipoff scheduled for 5 p.m. in the Reilly Center.
“We’re proud of what we’ve done,” Schmidt said. “[The players] deserve the exposure and the accolades from what they’ve done last year, but they understand that it was last year.
“I’m lucky to have five seniors that understand that”.
solomonj20@bonaventure.edu
