BY WILL POLADIAN, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
The Bonnies hosted Little Three rival Canisius at home on Wednesday, winning 67-59.
St. Bonaventure got out to a quick start going up three to start the game. The Bonnies pressured on defense early as they forced a couple missed 3-pointers. The Golden Griffins and Bonnies traded threes early as it was a very even shooting match.
Senior guard Asianae Johnson scored the first basket of the game and eclipsed 1,000 points in doing so.
At the end of one quarter, Canisius led 18-14. Both teams shot over 40% from the field while the Bonnies shot 42.9% from three. Canisius scored 10 from the paint and outrebounded the brown and white nine to five.
In the second quarter, both teams started slow. The Bonnies scored 15 points in the quarter to lead the Golden Griffins 29-27 at the break. Both teams shot 36% from the field, had 18 rebounds each and had 12 bench points. Each team also had six turnovers. The Bonnies shot 37% from three while the Griffins shot 17%. The Bonnies shot 63% from the free throw line while Canisius shot 50%. Canisius outscored St. Bonaventure 14-6 in the paint in the first half.
At the start of the second half, the Bonnies came out the gates hot, scoring points six in two minutes. The Bonnies defense would let up as the Golden Griffins would claw their way back. Near the end of the quarter, sophomore guard Maddie Dziezgowski jumped in front of a pass and made the breakaway layup to shift the momentum the Bonnies’ way. At the end of three the Bonnies trailed 46-44..
In the fourth, the teams went tit for tat, taking turns scoring the basketball. With about 45 seconds left in the game Asianae Johnson hit a mid-range jumper from the top of the key to ice the game. With 20 seconds left sophomore guard Tianna Johnson stole the ball and hung on to it to seal the deal for the Bonnies.
The Bonnies shot 42% from the field to the Griffins 39%, and shot 30% from deep compared to 26% for the visitors. The Bonnies went on a seven to zero run to close out the game while the Griffins were held scoreless for the last three minutes and sixteen seconds of the game.
The Bonnies had four scorers with double figures as Asianae Johnson led the team with 16 points. Redshirt senior guard Tori Harris added 14 points, junior forward I’yanna Lops scored 12 points and Maddie Dziezgowski netted a career-high 10 points while going perfect from the field.
Asianae Johnson discussed how the team’s production is important.
“I feel like everybody’s production is huge when winning a game,” said Johnson. “You can’t win without scoring.”
Tori Harris opened the season 0-for-7 from deep, but finally connected with two on Wednesday.
“Big,” said Harris. “I was waiting to make one for the season, so it felt good.”
Head Coach Jesse Fleming discussed his team’s performance on the night.
“I wanna shout out Torri Harris, just took a couple huge charges,” said Fleming. “I feel like every time they were about to get something at the rim Torri stepped in and took a charge. That was just huge for us and she just made a giant three out of a timeout. She stepped up and I saw a lot of growth from her tonight. Maddie Dziezgowski gave us huge minutes with her energy. She was the only one for a stretch that was playing with a lot of energy. Asianae Johnson has worked tirelessly for four years so for her to get 1,000 points at home is huge. I don’t like who we are offensively right now and defensively we gave up our stretches. We gotta figure something out. We just gotta figure out ways to score the basketball.”
poladiwj20@bonaventure.edu
