Photo: GoBonnies
BY NATHAN SOLOMON, MANAGING EDITOR
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — A new era of St. Bonaventure basketball has been born with a victory.
Despite a tie after 20 minutes, the Bonnies inched away from Saint Francis (PA) in the second half behind 52% shooting to defeat the Red Flash, 71-58, in the season opener.
The victory was a culmination of months of hard work leading up to Monday.
“We talked since August 26 in our first meeting about being 1-0 at 9 o’clock on November 7,” St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but I think we made a step in the right direction tonight.”
Bonaventure (1-0), opened up a 27-15 lead after just 12 minutes behind 11 points and two 3-pointers from sophomore Kyrell Luc. The Bonnies went scoreless for the next six minutes as Saint Francis (0-1) clawed back with a 12-0 spurt to tie it.
Daryl Banks lll, who finished with 14 points off 5-of-18 shooting, connected on a floater in the final seconds of the first half to even things at 32 at the break.
“In the first 10 minutes, I thought we played really uptempo,” Schmidt said. “We got stagnant … the game got slow at both ends.”
After starting Anouar Mellouck, Chad Venning came in and scored consecutive baskets to set the tone and put the Bonnies up four. Venning finished with seven points and six rebounds in 15 minutes.
“We need a five-man that we can throw the ball into and give us something, and I think Chad can be that guy,” Schmidt said. “He’s still learning, he’s still trying to get into tip-top shape, but he gave us a lift.”
Though Bonaventure shot the ball substantially better in the second half, they couldn’t fully shake the Red Flash.
“It’s just a new team trying to figure out what we’re doing,” Schmidt said. “It’s not going to look pretty all the time.”
Saint Francis stayed within four to 10 points until 3:15 remaining when Barry Evans made a second-chance layup to push the Bonnies ahead by double figures.
Evans finished with 12 points and eight rebounds in his Bonaventure regular-season debut.
“This is something I’ve dreamed of,” Evans said. “I just felt great when I was out there.”
Luc made four free throws and Evans threw down a thunderous dunk in the final 90 seconds to put the icing on Bonaventure’s opening victory.
Luc scored a game-high 23 points, one point shy of his career high, and distributed five assists.
“My open shots came from my teammates,” Luc said. “Open shots were falling, so I was basically just feeding off my teammates.”
Bonaventure hit 46% of its shots overall and four of its 19 3-point attempts. The Bonnies made 13-of-20 free throws and outrebounded Saint Francis, 37-36.
Bonaventure played nine different players Monday, including freshman Yann Farrell, who scored just two points in his debut. Max Amadasun, Justin Ndjock-Tadjore and Anquan Hill all played for the Bonnies.
Moses Flowers, one of Bonaventure’s redshirt junior captains, missed the game with a concussion, Schmidt said. The team hopes he will be cleared to play Saturday against Canisius College.
Josh Cohen led the Red Flash with 21 points off 9-of-11 shooting. Landon Moore added 15. The team shot 39% and made 21% of its 3-pointers.
The Bonnies travel to Buffalo to face Canisius on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. It’ll be Bonaventure’s first true road game in non-conference play since the 2019-20 season.
Canisius opened its 2022-23 season with a 92-81 loss to Youngstown State on Tuesday.
“Going on the road is difficult,” Schmidt said. “We’ve had some great games against Canisius … it’ll be a great game.”
