BY WILL POLADIAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Redshirt junior forward Chad Venning took a pass in the low post, pivoted and drove up to the basket, laying the ball in while being fouled by sophomore forward Rokas Jocius, tying the game at 62 points a piece with 5:11 left to play.
Venning then took a deep breath and concentrated on the hoop, shooting the ball through the nylon and giving the Bonnies a one-point advantage.
On the other end of the floor junior guard Daeshon Shepherd found himself open in the corner for a 3-pointer, but sophomore forward Assa Essamvous quickly batted the shot away, retaining the lead.
After two more buckets from La Salle, graduate guard Mika Adams-Woods made two free throws and off a Shepherd missed layup, redshirt senior guard Moses Flowers knocked down his first 3-pointer of the night, putting Bonaventure back up by two.
Junior guard Khalil Brantley knocked down two free throws on the other end of the court, tying the game at 68 with 1:09 left.
Venning then made a driving layup spinning to his right to put the Brown and White back on top by two.
Redshirt senior guard Daryl Banks III took a charge on a senior guard Jahmir Brickus drive to the basket, then made a driving layup on the other end, extending the lead.
“It was a team effort from all the guys,” said Adams-Woods. “It’s not going to be more about one player or two players, it was definitely an overall team effort.”
This led to an open Jocius down the court for an easy dunk on the inbound to cut the lead in half.
“I thought he had his best game of his of the year maybe his career,” said Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt.
Flowers knocks down his two free throws from a foul on the inbound pass with :17 seconds left.
Sophomore forward Barry Evans then fouled Brickus in the act of shooting a 3-pointer with :11 seconds to go in the contest. Brickus made all three shots.
“You can’t let anything that happened a second ago get to you but just be in the moment,” said redshirt junior center Noel Brown.
Venning ended up with the ball on the inbound, making him the shooter at the line for the Bonnies. He made the front half with a nice roll off his fingers.
As he shot the second free throw, he stepped into the lane before the ball touched the basket granting a lane violation. Bonaventure had to defend a two-point lead with :10 seconds left.
“We have to stick together and make stops on the defensive end,” said Adams-Woods. But more importantly just sticking together and having each other’s back.”
On the inbound Brickus took the ball and dribbled up to the right wing. He then tried to create separation with a step back 3-pointer that missed. Shepherd then tried to grab the rebound and dunk it but lost the ball as time expired, as Bonaventure won, 75-73.
“I just had came off the screen,” said Brickus. “I saw that there wasn’t much time, so I had to get something off and I couldn’t get that to hit.”
The Bonnies face Loyola Chicago tomorrow in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship in the Barclays Center. Tip off is slated for 5 p.m. and can be seen on USA Network.
“They’ll be motivated,” Schmidt. “So we got our hands full but that’s why we play the games. We’re going to give it our best shot and see what happens.”
poladiwj20@bonaventure.edu
