Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY NATHAN SOLOMON, SPORTS EDITOR
In a rematch from the 2021 Atlantic 10 Championship game, St. Bonaventure again reigned supreme, taking a 9-7 lead from VCU and leading the rest of the way to win 73-53.
“It’s the best game we’ve played in a while,” coach Mark Schmidt said postgame. “It was a team effort. We had energy from the very beginning.”
St. Bonaventure (10-3, 2-0 A10) opened up a nine-point lead nearly 14 minutes into the first half, but VCU (10-5, 3-1) cut it to just one with two minutes left. Kyle Lofton, who scored 13 points in the game, hit a free throw and Quadry Adams finished the half with consecutive transition layups to boost the Bonnies’ lead to six at the break.
“Quadry did a really good job for us in the first half,” Schmidt said. “Those two baskets were critical.”
The Bonnies rode off the momentum of Adams’ two baskets as they extended a 21-4 run through the first six minutes of the second half. VCU briefly cut the lead from 19 to 14 with six minutes left but St. Bonaventure pulled back ahead to win by 20.
Jalen Adway, after scoring just 13 points in Tuesday’s win over La Salle, scored 25 points to lead all scorers off 8-of-14 shooting. He also recorded eight rebounds in the effort.
“Me and the team were just trying to be as aggressive as possible,” Adaway said. “VCU is known for being the aggressor and throwing the first blows but we didn’t want that to happen tonight.”
Jaren Holmes, back into his traditional shooting guard role after Lofton’s injury absence, scored 17 points and recorded five rebounds and three assists. He shot a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, leading the team to shoot a combined 23-of-27.
“We shot [many] more free throws than [VCU] did,” Holmes said. “That’s what we want to do. We want to play aggressively without fouling.
“It was definitely one of our better games and it looked like we were out there having fun.”
Lofton scored 13 points for the Bonnies and held Rams’ star Ace Baldwin Jr. to just seven points off 3-for-10 shooting. Lofton also recorded five steals.
“We did a heck of a job on Baldwin,” Schmidt said. “Playing against them, they are going to be really aggressive. You’ve got to play vertically, you can’t play sideline to sideline. You’ve got to play baseline to baseline, and I thought we did that.”
St. Bonaventure shot 43% from the field and 29% from deep. VCU shot just 38% from the field and turned the ball over 13 times. The Bonnies outrebounded the Rams, 37-27.
Next up, VCU will host Davidson, which has won its last 12 games. For St. Bonaventure, they’ll travel to Dayton, Ohio to visit the Dayton Flyers.
“We’re thankful to have [our] guys back,” Holmes said, commenting on the team’s recent Covid-19 pause. “It was kind of like a rejuvenation.”
Tuesday’s game at Dayton tips at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
solomonj20@bonaventure.edu
