BY JONNY WALKER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Charles Pride had a team-high 21 points in his St. Bonaventure men’s basketball debut Monday night in the Reilly Center as the Bonnies opened their 2023-2024 season with a 73-69 win over visiting Longwood.
Despite going into the break up five, the Bonnies needed late free throws by guards Kyrell Luc and Daryl Banks III to seal the win over the Lancers (0-1, 0-0 Big South). Longwood bested Bonaventure in total rebounds (45-29), offensive rebounds (21-8) and free-throw attempts (25-10), but the Bonnies hit eight of sixteen second-half three-point attempts to survive.
“This is the first game. There’s going to be growing pains,” said Bona head coach Mark Schmidt. “I’m just glad we won. We need to get better in all phases, but it’s always good to win.”
Pride led all players with five made threes on eight attempts. Forward Assa Essamvous added another-three threes on six attempts. He finished second on the team with 12 points.
“Coach did a good job on the scout,” said Pride. “So, we kind of knew where our shots would come from. It was just a matter of executing, and then once we started to execute, a few shots started to fall. And we started to get into a little bit of a groove.”
Longwood had four double-digit scorers, including two over 20 points. Senior center Szymon Zapala scored 20 on 8-12 shooting with 11 rebounds. Transfer junior guard Johnathan Massie (McNeese State) led all scorers with 23 points, one shy of his career high.
“Massie was athletic. He can shoot it,” said Schmidt. “He can score at all three levels.”
The Bonnies will host Canisius Saturday in the Reilly Center. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m.
walkerjc20@bonaventure.edu
