Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY: ANDREW HALE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team shot 53% from the field Saturday night, propelling themselves to an 87-78 road win over Canisius University.
The Bonnies, who previously lost their last two matchups against the Golden Griffins, secured their first win in the Koessler Athletic Center since 2018.
Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt has rolled out three different starting lineups in as many games to begin the season.
After adding senior guard Chance Moore to the starting five in Bonaventure’s season-opener, Schmidt made redshirt freshman forward Duane Thompson the latest addition to the Bonnies’ starters.
Thompson set the tone immediately, hitting a 3-pointer to begin the afternoon matchup. Thompson finished the day with seven points, shooting 60% from the field in his first career start.
“Duane, who started today, got us off with a good three, and he made a couple of moves to the basket,” Schmidt said. “We had a lot of guys come in and help us today, and that’s good to see.”
The Bonnies, who shot 7-32 from three in the season’s first game, continued to put up 3-point shots in the first half against Canisius.
Bonaventure redshirt sophomore Jonah Hinton made two of the Bonnies four 3-point makes in the first half.
Bonaventure ultimately finished the first half, shooting 28% from beyond the arc.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well from threes, but we had some open looks,” Schmidt said.
A back-and-forth first half, including four lead changes, concluded with an 11-2 Bonnies run, giving SBU a 40-34 lead over Canisius.
Hinton and Moore both finished with 10 points at the end of the opening half, leading all Bonaventure scorers.
Golden Griffins’ Paul McMillan IV had a game-high 16 points at halftime. The junior guard shot 6-9 from the field in the first half.
McMillan IV ultimately finished the game with 31 points, shooting 11-15 from field goal range.
“We didn’t have an answer for [McMillan IV],” Schmidt said. “He’s a heck of a player.”
In the second half, the Bonnies seemingly switched their game plan from shooting threes to attacking the rim.
The Bonnies outscored Canisius 49 to 20 with points in the paint, had 17 second-chance points compared to the Golden Griffins’ 10 and shot 24 free throws to Canisius’s 12.
“You win basketball games in the paint,” Schmidt said. “I think [we got outscored by] 27 points from threes, but we dominated the paint. And I think if you dominate the paint, you can overcome those things. With our guys playing downhill and attacking the paint and being aggressive, that’s how we need to play to be successful this year.”
A collective effort was needed for Bonaventure’s first win over Canisius in two years, as five Bonnies finished in double figures scoring.
Moore finished with a team-high 27 points, shooting 69% from the field. Moore also had six rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
“I feel good out there, man,” Moore said. “Canisius got us the last two years, so we were hyped for this game. We were trying to punch them back, and following coach’s game plan, we had a couple of lapses, but we were able to make up for it and come out victorious.”
Bonnies senior guard Melvin Council Jr. had 17 points, four rebounds and four assists.
Council Jr. said he felt the energy of the Bonnies fans who made the 76-mile trip to Buffalo.
“Coach [Schmidt] had told us that it’s going to be a Super Bowl and that there was going to be a lot of fans for us, so we tried to put on a show,” Council Jr. said. “I didn’t believe him at first until I actually went on the court and heard ‘Let’s go, Bonnies.’ I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’”
The Bonnies travel to Fort Myers, Florida, to face Florida Gulf Coast University on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
halea22@bonaventure.edu
