Photo: St. Bonaventure Athletics
BY: ANDREW HALE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team picked up its eighth win of the season Wednesday, beating Bucknell 64-47.
Coming into Wednesday’s game against the Bison (4-6, 0-0 PAT), Bonaventure (8-1, 0-0 A-10) ranked 28th in the nation in scoring defense and 56th in defensive efficiency. The Bonnies’ defense was on full display against Bucknell, holding the Bison to their lowest point total of the season with 47. Bonaventure held Bucknell to 18-47 from field goal range and 4-20 from three.
After quickly going up 24-11 to begin the game, the Bonnies never looked back, securing themselves a wire-to-wire victory. The Bonnies entered halftime up 38-16, shooting 46% from the field and 5-13 from beyond the arc.
Bonnies senior guard Chance Moore took control of the first half, finishing the half with 15 points, shooting 100% – 6-6 from field goal range and 3-3 from three.
Bonaventure held Bucknell to 7-24 from the field and 1-9 in the first half.
“Our offense, I thought we had good pace in the first half,” Bona head coach Mark Schmidt said. “We need to get [points] off our defense and then into the open court, and I thought we did that the first 30 minutes. We had 13 second-chance points, 14 points off turnovers, and a lot of that was in the first half.”
While the Bonnies were able to maintain their lead throughout the second half, the Bison began to creep back, getting the score back to within 15. Bucknell ultimately outscored Bonaventure 31-26 in the second half.
The Bonnies were outshot from the field 43% to 48% and 22% to 27% from 3-point range in the second half.
“The second half pace was terrible, especially the last 10 minutes,” Schmidt said.
Overall, Bonaventure outrebounded Bucknell by five and outscored the Bison by six in the paint.
Graduate center Noel Brown finished the game with 14 points, shooting 60% from the field and grabbing four rebounds.
“We got to go inside to Noel [Brown], we got to get paint touches off the dribble [and] stuff in transition,” Schmidt said. “We were active, and we’re not a great half-court offensive team, as I’ve talked about since the season started.”
Moore finished with a game-high 17 points, grabbing six rebounds and recording two blocks and two steals.
Schmidt emptied the bench with a few minutes left in the second half, and 11 Bonnies saw the floor Wednesday night. Four Bonnies recorded at least three assists, and seven Bonnies grabbed three or more rebounds.
“I think we’re playing unselfishly, we’re sharing the ball,” Schmidt said. “I think we have good guys that want to win, and it’s hard [with] the whole portal thing and getting guys together for seven months, and it’s a challenge. But I think we have guys that want to win.”
The Bonnies play at home for the first time in 13 days as the team takes on Big Four rival Buffalo in the Reilly Center Saturday. Tipoff is set for 4:00 p.m. and will air live on ESPN+ and YES Network. Radio listeners can tune into the game via the Bonnies Online Network.
“We haven’t been home in a while and play a Buffalo team [in] the Big Four,” Schmidt said. “It’s going to be hopefully a great crowd and a good team, and we got to play well to win.”
halea22@bonaventure.edu
