ST. BONAVENTURE, NY — If Tuesday constituted a slow start, this was an outright scare.
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team played an abysmal first half, committing 11 turnovers and going 1-for-10 from 3-point range while spotting Little 3 rival Canisius a five-point halftime advantage. It got off to an equally rough start to the second half, twice falling behind 11 while sending the Reilly Center faithful into a temporary silent panic.
Much like they did in their season-opener, however, the Bonnies, staring down the barrel of an inexplicable loss, awakened when they needed to most.
KYLE LOFTON provided the initial spark, finishing a driving layup to turn a 57-50 deficit into a two-possession game with 6:25 remaining. No. 23 Bona took control from there, closing the game on a 19-3 run as a once-perturbed audience of 3,943 rose to a fever pitch. And in the end, though it may not have won by 28, it had done enough to move to 2-0.
Lofton and Jaren Holmes both finished with 17 points and Jalen Adaway in his season debut, scored 16 as the Bonnies got by the Golden Griffins 69-60 in a non-league game inside the RC on Sunday. Once again, coach Mark Schmidt’s team answered in its back-to-the-wall moment.
“Togetherness,” Holmes (9 rebounds) pointed to as the answer. “I think it was the second media timeout (of the second half) where we really just kind of looked at each other, the seniors, and said, ‘we’re not losing.’ We just had to make these plays that needed to be made.
“It just shows our togetherness as a group and our family principles. We’re not going to (let each other down). We’re going to go out there and play as hard as we can and that’s what we did in those last 10 minutes.”
Schmidt, whose group avenged a 61-57 loss to Canisius from its last meeting (in November 2019), echoed that belief.
“We played a terrible first half,” he acknowledged. “ … I thought we played much harder in the last 10 minutes, almost like a sense of desperation. They put us on our heels in the first half, but we regrouped. There wasn’t a lot of panic in the huddles, and they knew what we needed to do and we went out there, played much better and had a good victory.”
BONA, whether it should have or not as another 20-point favorite, experienced its share of adversity.
Osun Osunniyi, nursing a nagging lower back injury, tried to give it a go, but struggled in just 13 minutes of action, sat the whole second half and finished the game with a heating pad around his lower back. Bona exhibited some of its typical early-season shooting struggles, shooting just 35 percent (9-of-26) from the field in the first half and going 2-for-15 from 3-point range for the game.
Canisius never allowed itself to be a mere sacrificial lamb.
But once more, behind their best players, the Bonnies rallied, managing to keep their national standing unsullied heading into the Charleston Classic.
Holmes and Lofton each had a steal, the latter of which led to a two-handed slam, plus the foul, for Holmes and the crowd’s loudest pop of the night. Adaway finished a layup in traffic; Lofton made his lone trey of the game.
At the same time, Bona buckled down defensively, allowing just three points over the final 6:50 and just one meaningful basket over the final 7:23.
“You’re better players have to step up in those situations, and I thought they did,” Schmidt said. “Offensively, but they made steals, they got their hands on loose balls. The crowd was terrific; we probably wouldn’t have won if we weren’t playing in the Reilly Center, so kudos go out to the community and the students.
“We started playing the way we’re capable of playing and now we need to have that effort consistently. And if we get that, we have a chance to be pretty good.”
AFTER TOTALING seven points and five assists in the final 14 minutes of Tuesday’s win over Siena, Lofton again re-entered takeover mode, going for 11 points and a helper in the final 10 minutes on Sunday.
“I’m more aggressive down the stretch,” the senior point guard said of his late-game mentality. “I feel like I was aggressive the whole game (Sunday). I shot 15 shots; a lot of them didn’t fall, but I didn’t let that bother me. I was like, one’s gonna fall, then I got to the line which helped and I just kept being confident in myself.”
Bona was the more aggressive group; Holmes alone drew nine fouls and finished 7-of-11 at the line. But for the second-straight game, it was far from perfect, struggling to put away two inferior opponents.
With Osunniyi (who’s being viewed as day-to-day) sidelined, Bona’s defensive warts showed, as Canisius (0-3) was capable from the field until the final segment and grabbed 15 offensive rebounds, which helped keep it in the game. But it’s biggest emphasis between now and Thursday: Playing a full 40 minutes.
As Schmidt, now 9-5 against the Golden Griffins, noted, “we’re certainly not a finished product. At least I hope we’re not. If we’re a finished product, then we’re not good enough. We gotta be better.”
How do the Bonnies work on inducing a stronger first 20 minutes?
“We just gotta get better,” Schmidt said. “At the beginning (Sunday), I thought we had some open shots that we missed. Maybe that affected our defense a little bit. But it’s important to get off to a good start, not get behind. We have veteran guys, they understand we’ll make adjustments, watch tape and try to get better. But you never want to get down 11 in the second half … against anybody.”
