ST. BONAVENTURE — Mark Schmidt likened playing Middle Tennessee to going up against an Atlantic 10 opponent.
The Blue Raiders flustered Schmidt’s St. Bonaventure basketball team with its length, athleticism and aggressiveness in building an 11-point first half lead.
It took some clutch shooting from Kyrell Luc, better defense and rebounding and perfection from the free throw line in the final minutes for the Bonnies to overcome Middle Tennessee and escape with a 71-64 non-conference victory before 3,089 at the Reilly Center on Wednesday night.
“Things weren’t going well,” Schmidt said. “We got hit in the face. We flinched a little bit, but we didn’t go down. We kept on fighting. That’s a good sign for a young team.”
Luc played his best late, scoring 13 of his 22 points over the final 5:43 as the Bonnies finally took the lead for good.
“It starts in practice,” said Luc, who added three assists and two steals. “You work on scenarios like that in practice. It’s just repetition going over what we do in practice.”
Bona trailed 35-29 at halftime and didn’t take a lead in the second half until 6:32 left. The game went back and forth until a Luc free throw with 1:58 to go and a pull-up jumper from the sophomore a minute later made it 61-58.
Barry Evans blocked an Elias King 3-point attempt with 39 seconds left for Bona and Daryl Banks III made two free throws to extend the advantage.
Another block by Chad Venning on a Jestin Porter drive with 11 seconds left and two more Banks’ free throws sealed it.
The Bonnies connected on each of their last 11 foul shots over the final two minutes to put Middle Tennessee away. They were 10-of-19 from the charity stripe to that point.
“This is huge for us,” said Banks, who chipped in 15 points and was 6-of-6 on free throws late. “This is a gritty win. We had to work and grind. For us to come back and get it done, it gives us huge momentum going into Saturday (at Buffalo). We’re going to piggyback off of it and get back in the gym and work.”
Besides connecting on his final five free throws, Luc hit a handful of big shots of the Bonnies. There was a 30-footer with the shot clock expiring in the first half and a banked-in 3-pointer with 2:48 left for a 1-point lead.
Bona never trailed again.
“He’s not afraid of the big stage,” Schmidt said of Luc. “That’s important for a point guard.”
Luc, who was 7-of-14 from the field and 6-of-8 on free throws, has been a key player in the Bonnies’ current winning streak, which was extended to four.
Schmidt said Luc has “a lot of upside” and “I think he’s not close to where he’s going to be.”
That’s high praise for a player who already averages over 16 points and six assists.
Another standout of late, Venning added 13 points on 5-of-7 from the field and 3-of-4 free throws. Bona also got solid contributions from Evans (8 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals) and fellow freshman Yann Farell (6 points, 8 rebounds).
Banks went over 1,000 points for his career when he hit a pair of 3-pointers to start the game. The redshirt junior, who started his career at St. Peter’s, praised the SBU student section for propelling the Bonnies in the final moments.
“They’re everything for us,” he said. “We needed a stop when the score was tied. They were making a lot of noise. That gets us going. We need them. They were a big part of this win for us.”
Now at 5-2, Schmidt shot down the idea that expectations are rising for a new roster that came into the season with little.
“No,” he said. “We’re just trying to get better everyday. Our goal is to come to practice everyday and improve. We have a young team. We’re so far away from where we need to be. You can tell. We play in spurts. We have to play consistently. Our expectations are always the same. We try to win. That’s not going to change.”
After all, much of the game’s first 20 minutes didn’t go well for Bona.
Middle Tennessee used a 21-5 run to go from down five to up 11 late in the first half. The Blue Raiders hammered the Bonnies on the boards in the first half, holding a 23-14 edge overall and 10-3 on offensive rebounds.
Middle Tennessee also gave Bona problems with its pressure defense, forcing 15 turnovers.
The Blue Raiders held the edge in points off turnover (16-9), points in the paint (44-22), second chance points (11-9), fast break points (10-2) and bench points (14-7).
Teafale Lenard had a career-best 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, Porter produced 14 points and Eli Lawrence and DeAndre Dishman (9 rebounds) chipped 13 each for the Conference USA team.
If not for shooting 2-of-18 on 3-pointers and 8-of-18 on free throws, it’s likely Middle Tennessee (5-3) would have earned its fourth consecutive victory.
Besides benefitting from the Blue Raiders’ poor shooting, the Bonnies were better rebounding in the second half, holding a 16-8 advantage.
“We did a better job,” Schmidt said, “We made our foul shots. We got some stops. We need to get better at end-of-game situations. I thought we got enough stops and made our foul shots. That’s what you’ve got to do.”
Guard Brett Rumpel played for the first time this season for the Bonnies after missing the first six games of the season with a foot injury. The redshirt freshman went 0-for-1 from the field in 1:57 of action.
“It’s great to have him back,” Schmidt said. “ It’s hard. He hasn’t played in a month and a half, two months. You try to put him out there and ease him into it. This is a tough game to ease him in with the athletes that these guys had. And he’s nervous and so forth. I thought just getting him in and getting him a little bit of time will benefit him and benefit us.”
