BY TOM SEIPP, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
CHARLESTON, S.C. – St. Bonaventure Bonnie fans have had the Charleston Classic circled on their calendar for a long time. There appeared to be a lot of fans who had that circled, as TD Arena was packed with Bonnie fans.
The Bonnies made sure the trip was worth it, as they started off with a 67-61 victory over Boise State in Thursday’s quarterfinal.
“I thought we played a good game,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt remarked. “Not a perfect game; we struggled offensively in the last 10 minutes of the first half. But we overcame that.”
St. Bonaventure went up by 10 points early in the first half, but Emmanuel Akot and the Broncos bounced back in a big way. Akot, a senior, scored a career high 24 points for Boise State.
“He’s a heck of a player,” Schmidt said of Akot. “We couldn’t stop him.”
Boise State came back in the first half solely because of Akot’s shooting, especially thanks to his six three pointers. But, Dominick Welch shut him down in the closing minutes, not allowing Boise State to create any opportunities offensively.
“That’s how you win, defense has to be your staple,” Schmidt said. “Offense is fickle and I say it all the time: I thought our guys played extremely hard. We outrebounded them, we took care of the ball.”
After all of Bonaventure’s struggles in the first half – and a three point deficit at halftime – they ended up winning the second half by nine points.
Kyle Lofton led the Bonnies with 17 points and seven assists; he played all 40 minutes. After exiting the Canisius game early due to a back injury, Osun Osunniyi bounced back by playing 35 minutes, finishing with seven points and seven rebounds. Jaren Holmes had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Dominick Welch had 12 points.
Despite shooting 23.5% from three, the Bonnies finished the game shooting 45.3% from the field; they connected on 15-of-18 free throws.
The Bonnies will have to recover quickly, as they’ll take on Clemson tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 on ESPN2 in the semifinal.
seipptw19@bonaventure.edu
