ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — For the first 20 minutes, its rematch with Hofstra closely resembled last year’s contest.
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team picked apart, and got out ahead of, the Pride’s 2-3 zone. It knocked down a handful of shots from deep. And even without the benefit of an electric sold out crowd and the motivation of playing in front of the 1970 Final Four team, it went on another wild run, this one a 26-2 stretch that gave it a 30-7 lead barely 10 minutes in.
Unlike last year, however, when Bona held that lead throughout in a 73-45 victory, Hofstra made a push, more of one than anyone might have anticipated. And with 5:22 remaining, coach Mark Schmidt’s team found itself trailing, 66-62.
But for as stunned as they might have been in that moment, Bona’s veterans wouldn’t allow this to slip fully away.
Osun Osunniyi scored the next four points to tie it; Dominick Welch rattled home a 3-pointer from in front of his team’s spaced out bench area to give the Bonnies the lead. Kyle Lofton hit a shot in the lane to give them some breathing room. And instead of a demoralizing loss at a still-trying time of the year, Bona celebrated a victory — and another big win over the Pride — in its return to the Reilly Center, 77-69, on Saturday afternoon.
“WE KNEW they were going to make a run; I didn’t think it was going to be (plus-27),” coach Mark Schmidt acknowledged. “But I thought our guys really handled the adversity. We got down by four, we could have faded. We fought back, we got more aggressive. We got our mojo back a little bit.
“Four minutes left, the guys (said), ‘hey, we’ve got to keep fighting. It’s good that we have a veteran team. Kyle made a couple plays, ‘Shoon made a couple plays; that’s what we need.”
Much like Tuesday, the Bonnies’ “Big 3” was at the forefront of the triumph, one that, surprisingly, gave them their first 2-0 start since 2013-14.
Osunniyi had a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds and returned from foul trouble to score eight key points down the stretch. Lofton totaled 16 points, nine assists and four rebounds while Welch added 15 points and eight boards. Together, the trio notched 45 four days after piling up 60 in a season-opening win over Akron.
And behind them, for a half anyway, Bona could do little wrong.
ASIDE FROM a scorching start offensively, the crescendo for which was a Jaren Holmes corner 3-pointer that ordinarily would have had the RC busting at the seams, Bona did its part in holding the Pride to 3-of-17 from the field and keeping big man Isaac Kante in check and stud scorers Jalen Ray and Tareq Coburn at bay.
And even after cooling slightly, Schmidt’s team still held a 13-point halftime lead (43-28) against the reigning CAA champions and current Colonial favorites.
By the midway point of the second half, though, things changed. The Bonnies, per Osunniyi, became “selfish” offensively, settling for too many quick shots. Ray, who wound up pouring in 28 points, went off.
And with Osunniyi sidelined with three fouls, Hofstra took advantage, doing to Bona what the Bonnies had done in the first half and all of last year.
“We did a good job in the first half,” Schmidt said. “We got the ball to the middle, made some shots, we pushed the ball in transition. We did everything we were supposed to do in the first half against a zone, and we went away from it (in the second half); we got a little bit tentative.”
Ray drilled a 3 to tie it and another to put the Pride in front as Hofstra somehow rallied from down 23 to being in front. Coburn, who finished with nine, hit one to make it 61-59 before Ray added another. Bona ultimately buckled down, however, allowing just three points in the final five minutes to help seal it.
“It’s hard sometimes,” Schmidt allowed. “They’re making 3s and now you’re going down and the shots you get are open, but they’re a little bit more difficult because now you know you need it because they’re making a run. Those things happen in a game, but I was proud of how we finished, and that’s the key.”
FOR BONA fans, it was a game their team managed to survive, but to the team, it was a contest that, aside from that ugly stretch in the second half, it fared well in while still finding its way. The Bonnies hit some of their key goals, outrebounding the Pride by 15, holding it to below 40 percent from the field and committing a manageable 11 turnovers. It also nearly had five double-digit scorers, with Holmes finishing with eight points and nine rebounds and Adaway notching 9 and 5.
“There’s a lot of positives in our effort,” Schmidt said. “We’ve got to get better, we can’t give up 20-point leads, but it’s the beginning of the year. Our guys aren’t in great shape, we haven’t practiced all that often. So there’s a lot of challenges that are going on, but I’m just proud of the mental toughness to be able to come back.”
And for Bona, perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing that it both experienced, and stood up to, some adversity in the early going.
“It’s good,” Osunniyi said. “It kind of showed us how we handled adversity early. We played a good team; Hofstra’s a really good team. I felt we handled it as best we could and when it was time to hunker down and make the winning plays, we did that.”
