PHOTO: GoBonnies.com
BY NATHAN SOLOMON
After leading at the half, St. Bonaventure built an 11-point lead over Buffalo with 3:05 remaining. Dominick Welch hit his second 3-pointer of the game, and things looked promising for the Bonnies.
Suddenly, a 13-2 run for the Bulls sparked by three-consecutive 3-pointers in a 53-second span tied the game at 65 with just 28 seconds to play.
St. Bonaventure brought the ball downcourt after a timeout and Jaren Holmes dribbled the ball out for several seconds. Finally, after an Osun Osunniyi screen and cut, Holmes found a wide-open Jalen Adaway from the top of the key.
Swish.
Buffalo had just a second and a half to heave a half-court shot to force overtime, and the shot bounced off the right side of the backboard. St. Bonaventure avoided another upset bid, winning 68-65.
“He’s always in the gym. He deserved to hit that shot,” coach Mark Schmidt said postgame. “When you put yourself in that position and you put all that work in, you want to have that shot, and it was all net.”
For the second consecutive game, Adaway posted a double-double, scoring a team-high 16 points and recording 11 rebounds.
“We knew if my guy was going to help the roll, the shot was going to be there,” Adaway said. “Missing that one shot against Dayton [last season], that’s kind of what drives me to keep working, so when I get another opportunity like tonight, I can cash in.”
For the Bonnies (7-1), the scoring column started and ended the same way. After Jeenathan Williams scored first for the Bulls (4-3), Adaway matched it with two of his own. The game remained within one possession for either team for most of the first half, but St. Bonaventure closed on a 14-4 run to take a 35-29 lead at the break.
“Our guys came out and played really aggressive,” Schmidt said. “It was really important to us to control the paint and outrebound them….we did a better job of taking care of the ball.
“It’s always good to be working on things when you win.”
St. Bonaventure held Buffalo, a top-65 shooting team in the country, to just 40% from the field and 29% from 3-point range. The Bulls shot just 34% and were outrebounded by nine in the first half.
“They average 80 points a game,” Schmidt said. “We didn’t do a good job against their press, but we found a way to win.”
Most notably, Kyle Lofton did not play on Saturday after injuring his ankle in Wednesday’s victory over Coppin State. Redshirt freshman guard Quadry Adams started in Lofton’s place and contributed, along with Linton Brown and Abdoul Karim Coulibaly. Brown scored 10 points, while Adams and Coulibaly each scored six.
“All three of those guys did a really good job tonight,” Schmidt said. “Hopefully it gives them the confidence that they can come in and be productive for us.”
Osun Osunniyi added 14 points, 12 coming in the first half, and Holmes scored eight on an abysmal 3-of-17 shooting night. However, it came at the expense of him running point guard instead of his typical shooting guard position with Lofton injured.
“We’re a wounded animal. One of our leaders is hurt,” Schmidt said. “Sometimes, when you’re a wounded animal, you’re desperate. And we were desperate.”
St. Bonaventure wraps up its home portion of non-conference on Wednesday against Loyola (Md.) before back-to-back neutral site games against Connecticut and Virginia Tech.
“We hadn’t been fighting as much,” Adaway said. “We just saw that with Kyle [Lofton] out, we gotta get more. Moving forward, we’ve got to keep doing that.”
solomonj20@bonaventure.edu
