BY WILL POLADIAN, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
The St. Bonaventure Bonnies continued their homestand against the Kent State Golden Flashes looking to continue their home win streak. The Bonnies won the tip off and the opening possession resulted in a shot-clock violation. The Flashes started the game with two threes to open their scoring. After trading four straight turnovers both teams would trade two threes.
At the end of the first quarter, the Golden Flashes led, 19-13. Bonnies guard Asianae Johnson shot 3-3 from the field while Flashes guard Casey Santoro shot 2-2. The Bonnies shot 50% from the field while the Flashes 46.2%. Kent State shot 80% from three while St. Bonaventure shot 50%. The Bonnies didn’t go to the line while the Flashes shot 75%.
In the second quarter, both teams traded turnovers once again then two blocks. Guard Lexie Sinclair broke the scoreless bid with a 3-pointer. This started a 7-0 run for the Bonnies for the next four minutes. The turnovers continued to pile up as the Bonnies closed out the half 5-6 from the field. In the second the Bonnies shot 71.4% from the field while the Flashes shot only 26.3%. Forward Taylor Napper shot 2-2 while Asianae Johnson stayed perfect shooting 5-5 from the field.
At the break, the Bonnies trailed 34-26. The Bonnies shot 57.9% while the Golden Flashes shot 34.4%. Both teams shot 50% from three. The Flashes shot 83.3% from the line while the Bonnies shot 50%. The Bonnies turned the ball over 12 times to the Flashes six, and Kent State outrebounded St. Bonaventure 16-12.
The third quarter saw turnovers become a factor once again as both teams kept putting the ball on the floor. Shooting struggles started to prevail as the Bonnies were held scoreless for the last 4:37 of the period. During that time the Flashes would go on a 7-0 run to close the quarter. At the end of the third, Kent State led 47-36.
The Bonnies shot 43.8% to the Flashes 35.7%. The Bonnies would not attempt a three to keep their 3-point percentage at 50 while the Flashes shot 47.4%. Both teams would be even at 66.7%. Turnovers continued to rack up for both teams as the Bonnies sat at 17 for the game while the Flashes were at 13. Kent State continued to outrebound St. Bonaventure 28-17 and lead in bench points with 18 to the Bonnies 4.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Flashes would start to pull away from the Bonnies. Three Bonnies would end up in foul trouble as two fouled out. The first score for the Bonnies came with 7:42 left in the game. Kent State ran into foul trouble as well with forwards Lindsay Thall and Nila Blackford. Blackford fouled out. The closest the Bonnies got was within 6 after a 9-2 run late in the fourth. The Bonnies couldn’t mount a comeback as the final tallied: Kent State 64, St. Bonaventure 53.
The Bonnies would outshoot the Flashes 44.2% to 38.6% from the floor and 45.5% to 40% from three. Even at the charity stripe, the Bonnies outshot the Flashes 71.4% to 62.5%. Kent State outrebounded St. Bonaventure 35-26 and had more points off the bench at 19-4. The turnovers were a problem for both sides as the Bonnies had 19 to the Flashes 15. Leading the Bonnies was Asianae Johnson with 18 points, six assists and three rebounds.
“I’m proud of my kids tonight,” said coach Jesse Fleming. “I thought they fought. Kent is playing really well, specifically on the offensive side. They’re shooting the three at an unbelievable clip right now. They’ve got some versatile kids. They’re playing confident basketball and I just thought we kept fighting. They came out shooting really well and I just think we kept pushing. This is the game we wanted to play. We’ve got a schedule where we’ve got some confidence but Kent would be an upper half Atlantic 10 team at least right now and we needed to know that we’re going to make mistakes. The great teams make you pay and I think we learned a lot of lessons tonight and hopefully, we grow from it.”
poladiwj20@bonaventure.edu
