Photo: @BonniesMBB / X
BY: WILL NUNN, SPORTS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team fell 77-53 in a meeting with Loyola Chicago Tuesday, slipping back below .500 in Atlantic 10 play.
The 24-point loss is the largest margin of defeat of the season for the Bonnies (17-7, 5-6 A-10), who turned the ball over 16 times and shot just 38% from the field.
“They were just more physical than us,” said Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt. “Sometimes it just looked like men amongst boys.”
Senior guard Des Watson led all scorers for the Ramblers (14-8, 5-4 A-10) with 17 points, adding four rebounds and four steals. Sophomore center Miles Rubin tallied 15 points and nine rebounds, and junior guard Jayden Dawson added 14 points and five boards.
For the Bonnies, senior guards Melvin council Jr. and Chance Moore led the way with 13 and 11 points respectively.
The Bonnies’ bench was forced into action early after Chance Moore picked up his second foul with 5:24 left in the first half. Moore sat the bench for the remainder of the half as the Bonnies trailed 33-24 going into the locker room.
The Ramblers carried their momentum into the second half and never looked back, starting the half on a 23-9 run and leading by as many as 27.
“When they got on a little bit of a run our offense stalled,” said Schmidt. “We were always playing on our heels when they were attacking us.”
Coming off a season-high 22 points in Saturday’s win over Fordham, Bonnies senior center Noel Brown was held without a field goal, with his only four points coming from the free throw line.
“They were double-teaming Noel right away and he made some difficult decisions,” Schmidt said. “When Noel doesn’t have a basket, we’re going to struggle.”
St. Bonaventure now returns home for a matchup against George Washington on Sunday, with tipoff set for 12:00 p.m. The game will air live on USA Network, with a radio broadcast streaming on the Bonnies Online Network.
