Photo courtesy of GoBonnies
BY JONNY WALKER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team entered the 2023-24 season as the nation’s most-experienced team, according to KenPom.
But that experience didn’t truly show until Thursday night — three games into the season — as the Bonnies gutted out a 66-64 win over Power Five-opponent Oklahoma State on national television.
For every Cowboys’ run, the Bonnies responded with a similarly sized run of their own. Two of Bonaventure’s fifth-year players were unexpectedly tasked with playing 35-plus minutes as injuries and foul trouble tested the team’s depth. And through savvy, veteran plays in the final moments of Thursday’s game, the Bonnies’ displayed previously unseen composure.
“I thought we showed some toughness today,” said Bona head coach Mark Schmidt. “We didn’t get off to a good start … [and we] fought our way back. Didn’t get off to a good start in the second half … [and we] fought our way back.”
The Cowboys started the game on a 10-2 run. Bona fired back with a 7-0 run of its own, helping the Bonnies go into halftime with a one-point lead. Early in the second half, OSU went on an 14-0 run, taking the largest lead of the game by either team (10). The Bonnies immediately fired back with a 14-1 run of their own, retaking the lead on a 3-pointer from redshirt senior guard Daryl Banks III.
An 8-2 Bona run over the game’s final 1:57 sealed Bonaventure’s two-point victory.
The victory came with Bonaventure missing two of its key, veteran players: junior point guard Kyrell Luc and senior guard Moses Flowers. Both players suffered ankle injuries in practice on Wednesday.
The injuries shrunk Bona’s typical rotation from nine players to seven at the game’s start. Foul trouble further restricted Bonaventure’s in-game depth, limiting starters Chad Venning and Charles Pride to 20 minutes and 24 minutes, respectively.
In Luc and Flowers’ absence, Banks played all 40 minutes. Fellow fifth-year guard Mika Adams-Woods played 35 minutes. Neither player had recorded more than 28 minutes in either of Bona’s first-two games. Against the Cowboys, the pair led the Bonnies in scoring, and Adams-Woods’ 17 led all scorers.
But the team’s experience shined most in a series of late-game moments.
With just under two minutes to play, Schmidt called timeout before turning and punching his whiteboard, catapulting his marker across the court. Rather than appearing intimidated by their coach’s outburst, Schmidt’s players instead appearing re-energized coming out of the timeout.
“I want to win,” Schmidt explained after the game. “But our guys responded. That’s what I liked.”
Just under a minute later, Pride grabbed a defensive rebound and enticed an OSU player to reach for the ball. With Bona in the bonus, the ensuing foul awarded the Bonnies a one-and-one opportunity.
Following another Schmidt timeout, Adams-Woods went to the line and hit both free throws on Pride’s behalf, evening the score to 62 apiece. Just one game prior, Adams-Woods had found himself in a similar situation — but missed both free throws in what became a one-possession loss.
“I grew from it,” Adams-Woods said after the game.
Bonaventure retook the lead for the final time with 20 seconds remaining. Down by two, Banks felt pressured from behind and fired a 3-pointer with the intention of drawing a foul. Banks made all three of his free throws.
“I knew he was trailing me pretty hard,” Banks said of the OSU defender after the game. “So I had a feeling that I’d be able to draw a foul on the shot. And I did.”
Friday, the Bonnies will face an Auburn team that received votes in the AP’s most-recent Top 25 Poll. If Bonaventure expects to win, they’ll likely need a similar display of experience and composure.
walkerjc20@bonaventure.edu
