It did what it has done time and again in these games away from the Reilly Center:
The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team put itself in a position to win.
After first playing from behind and then going back-and-forth, Bona retook the lead (64-63) on a Moses Flowers shot clock-beating baseline jumper with 2:17 remaining. But as has too often happened in this uneven season, that’s where things came undone.
In perhaps the game’s most important sequence, Siena’s Jackson Stormo was given the and-one call at the other end, rather than an offensive foul, pushing the Saints up two and fouling out Chad Venning, who’d just made two big buckets inside. More to their fault, however, the Bonnies responded thusly on their next four possessions: A missed wide open layup from Kyrell Luc, a turnover, an offensive foul and a 1-of-2 effort at the free throw line.
In that time, Siena got a huge driving runner from point guard Javian McCollum, the best player on the floor with 23 points. And, again, that was it. A would-be win never was. With Bona fouling, the Saints went 8-for-8 at the line in the final minute to reclaim the Franciscan Cup with a 76-70 victory before 5,616 observers on Monday at MVP Arena.
FOR AS unsavory as the loss itself was, the bigger picture — to fans, at least — was probably just as unsettling.
Bona (6-6) has now lost three-straight games for the first time in nearly three calendar years (January 2020). It got swept this season by the MAAC after also losing to Canisius and Iona. It again couldn’t quite get it done on the road, where it’s now 0-3 in true away contests and 1-5 outside the RC. And now, it’ll need a win on Thursday at Northern Iowa to avoid just its third losing record entering Atlantic 10 play in the Mark Schmidt era.
“We played hard, we had the lead, up three (55-52 on a Daryl Banks III with 8:06 left); we had the lead against Iona,” Schmidt allowed afterward. “We just can’t … we need to learn to finish, make those plays in those times where we have to make plays.”
FOR THE Bonnies, once more, there was some good to come from this latest lesson-learning loss.
They had five players in double figures, highlighted by junior guard Moses Flowers, who had his best game in a Bona uniform with 14 points off the bench on 5-for-6 shooting. They shot 52 percent from the field, dominated the points in the paint (36-32), received 21 points from its bench and committed a manageable 11 turnovers.
On most other nights, those numbers likely allow a team to win.
As Schmidt had noted just a day earlier, though, “No matter how good your offense is, if you don’t fix (your defense and rebounding), it doesn’t matter.” And that point was driven home emphatically on Monday in Albany.
Oh, it’s not as if Bona was a turnstyle, the way it was in, say, the second half last week against Florida Gulf Coast. Still, it struggled just enough in these areas for Siena (6-5) to remain ahead or just a possession behind. Bona was handled on the boards in the first half (18-11) before battling to within 26-24 at game’s end. It allowed the Saints to shoot 9-for-18 from deep, none bigger than the two from Michael Eley (10 points on 3-for-5 shooting) with 6:27 and 3:50 left, each of which pushed Siena back in front.
And those factors, combined with another unsatisfactory final segment made for Bona’s demise. If Luc’s layup goes in, the game is tied heading into the final 1:15 and perhaps the Bonnies’ confidence grows to the point where they can win it. Instead, McCollum gets his runner to fall with just seconds left on the shot clock and the two-score lead (68-64) was all the Saints needed.
With its freebies in the final minute, Siena wound up holding a game-changing advantage at the line, making an impressive 23-of-26 to the Bonnies’ 8-for-13 mark.
“We didn’t close out well enough, both offensively and defensively,” said Schmidt, whose teams are now 7-5 against its sister school since the Franciscan Cup series began in 2010. “We didn’t make some rotations. I thought our effort was there, I thought we executed at times, we just … we didn’t get to the foul line enough and they made their foul shots.”
He added, “We didn’t have enough assists (8 on 28 field goals). We just gotta play better. We put ourselves in a position to win, we just didn’t finish.”
VENNING FINISHED with 12 points on 6-of-12 shooting before fouling out with 2:00 remaining. Freshman Yann Farell had 13 points and made 3-of-4 treys and Banks and Luc added 11 and 10, respectively, though it came on a combined 9-of-25 shooting. The true bright spot, however, was the effort from Flowers, who seems to be growing more comfortable in his reserve role and is becoming more of a contributor, notching 10-plus points in three of his last five games.
“He played really well,” Schmidt said of the 6-foot-5 Hartford transfer. “He shot the ball well, hopefully that gave him some confidence and he can play like that the rest of the way.”
Bona rallied from early deficits of 10-2 and 16-6 (plus a 38-31 halftime hole) to make it close the rest of the way. Alas, on this night, both its own effort and the one from Flowers went for naught.
“We played hard, but we didn’t come out with the dub,” Flowers acknowledged. “We just gotta … as a group keep working hard, which we’ve been doing in practice, working in practice and coming out to defend in away games and outwork opponents.”
