PHOTO: GO.BONNIES.COM
BY NATHAN SOLOMON, SPORTS EDITOR
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Fresh off a loss against AJ Green and Northern Iowa, the St. Bonaventure Bonnies rebounded with a 93-81 victory over Coppin State on Wednesday, but the way the game ended overshadowed the result.
Senior guard Kyle Lofton fell with an apparent injury after awkwardly landing on his left leg with under a minute to go. Facing backcourt pressure from the Eagles, he passed out of a double-team and landed in severe pain. With help of teammate Osun Osunniyi and training staff, Lofton was assisted off the floor and eventually out of the arena as he couldn’t bare weight on the leg.
“I’m not a doctor,” coach Mark Schmidt said. He didn’t comment on the extent of the injury.
Lofton had played every second of the game up to the point of injury as the Bonnies had trouble shaking Coppin State (1-10), a team ranked 325th of 358 Division I teams in Kenpom. St. Bonaventure (6-1) again slugged out to a slow start and faced a 12-point deficit with 2:39 left in the first half.
“Coppin [State] really came out and came at us,” Schmidt said. “I thought they played harder [and] more active.”
But a Coppin State technical foul sent Lofton to the free-throw line, sparking an 11-3 run for the hosts to cut the lead to four points at the break.
Senior Dominick Welch connected on three-consecutive 3-pointers out of halftime, and Jalen Adaway scored five points in 30 seconds to push the Bonnies ahead. They kept the lead for the rest of the game, but it didn’t come easy. Coppin State fought back and cut St. Bonaventure’s lead down to six in the waning minutes after trailing by as many as 13.
“We played much more aggressive, much more active,” Schmidt said. “We need to do a better job keeping the ball in front of us and try to be more of a pack-line defense”.
Coppin State scored a season-high 81 points in the game, and its 44 first-half points were the most scored by the team in any half. They entered Wednesday’s game averaging under 62 points a game and 343rd in offensive efficiency, per kenpom.
“Their big guys got us early,” Schmidt said. “We played harder in the second half.”
Jaren Holmes scored a season-high 24 points, connecting on three 3-pointers and shooting 10-of-14 from the field. He also recorded 10 rebounds.
“We got the win today, but in that locker room, we know we should have played better,” Holmes said. “We’re not used to giving up 80 points a game, so we need to figure some stuff out.”
Osun Osunniyi added 17 points and Lofton scored 16. Jalen Adaway had 13 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. Welch scored just nine points and battled foul trouble, but moved into 6th place in program history with 184 made 3-pointers over his career.
Redshirt sophomore Jesse Zarzuela scored 27 points to lead the Eagles off 10-of-20 shooting. He entered the game shooting just 33% from the field on the season. Tyree Corbett and Nendah Tarke scored 17 and 16 points, respectively, for Coppin State.
Next up, the Eagles will travel to Ithaca to face the 6-1 Cornell Big Red on Friday. St. Bonaventure will continue its four-game homestand with the Buffalo Bulls coming to the Reilly Center on Saturday.
“We’ve got to get better. I’ve been saying it over and over again,” Schmidt said. “We got to get better in all areas of the game.”
solomonj20@bonaventure.edu
