ST. BONAVENTURE, NY — St. Bonaventure left little doubt in recapturing the Br. Ed Coughlin Franciscan Cup Saturday night.
In the annual men’s basketball rivalry game with Siena College, the Bonnies took a 46-25 lead after an emphatic first half and only added to it in the second. Bona finished with an 89-56 win in front of 4,022 fans at the Reilly Center, its second straight by 30-plus points after topping Niagara by 34 on Wednesday.
Bona shot 55.2% from the field and 41.7% from the 3-point line, with 13 different players — including three walk-ons — seeing the court in the runaway victory. Bona will take a five-game win streak into next Saturday’s challenge, facing AP No. 11 Florida Atlantic at a neutral site in Massachusetts.
Point guard Mika Adams-Woods continued his hot streak, shooting a perfect 9-for-9 from the field, 4-for-4 from 3 and 1-of-1 at the free throw line for 23 points, his third consecutive 20-point game. Center Chad Venning also stayed hot with 20 points of his own at 8-fo-12 from the floor.
The offensive numbers are flashy: four straight 80-point games. But for Bona coach Mark Schmidt, winning, as always, starts on the other side.
“I say it all the time, offense, you just never know and right now we’re in a hot time of the season where we’re shooting the ball really, really well,” Schmidt said. “But that’s not going to last. What lasts, what’s the constant, is our defense. And that needs to be the staple and for the last couple, three games, it has been. I think it gets overshadowed by how we’re shooting the ball, Mika, all those guys.”
“But I thought from a defensive standpoint we played well and then we take the offense and we’re shooting the ball well, we’re sharing the ball, we’re taking care of the ball, we’re getting scoring inside from Chad. So we’re doing an effective job.”
Moses Flowers added 12 points off the bench, Daryl Banks III had 11 points and four assists and Assa Essamvous had 12 rebounds and four assists with his seven points.
The Bonnies held Siena without a double-digit scorer as the saints shot 38.2% from the field and 28.6% from 3. Bona also held big advantages in points off turnovers (15-2) and in the paint (40-18).
Charles Pride missed his third straight game with an ankle injury, while backup point guard Kyrell Luc, also hobbled by an ankle, returned to play 15 minutes after missing two games.
But perhaps the most notable name to rise off of Schmidt’s bench was freshman guard Miles Rose, who made his season debut. Rose played 10:35, and while he scored just two points on five shots, he showed his athleticism with multiple exciting moves to the basket, just missing a few close chances.
Schmidt expects to see more of Rose as a potential “ninth man” in his rotation, especially in cases where his guards get in foul trouble.
“We got in foul trouble,” Schmdit said of playing Rose. “So Miles came in and he didn’t play perfect, but he played really hard. And that’s what we need for him coming off the bench, being the ninth or 10th guy. I thought he really handled himself well. He missed a couple shots but he was aggressive, he defended decently. So it’s hard your first game, it’s difficult and I thought he passed the test.”
Banks, Bona’s leading scorer last year and a preseason first-team Atlantic 10 selection, endured a long shooting slump to start his season, but is up to 9.9 points per game after his fourth straight game of 10 or more. But with newcomers like Adams-Woods and Pride (when healthy), he’s also had less pressure to score as last year.
“You see what’s happening,” Banks said of Bona’s offense. “It’s beautiful to watch. It makes everything easier for everybody, because we have so many weapons. So it’s hard for teams to just key in on certain people because it can be anybody’s day. So that’s just really what it is, it’s very helpful for us and it’s helping us win.”
Last week, Schmidt sounded dissatisfied after a 15-point win at Buffalo due to some sloppiness in the second half. But the Bonnies have not made the same second-half mistakes this week, putting Niagara and Siena away with efficiency.
“We’ve learned,” Schmidt said “I was disappointed in the last five minutes of the UB game where we got a little bit lackadaisical. This game is a special game and you can’t cheat it and I thought we cheated it in those last five minutes. Now we just talk about finishing. We’ve got to finish. And I thought the Niagara game and today’s game, we finished. You’ve got to play the game the right way. I’m old school. No matter what you’re up, you’re playing like it’s 0-0.”
Bona also avenged a 2022-23 loss — falling 76-70 last December in Albany — just as it did a week ago by defeating UB.
“It feels really good,” Banks said. “Last year around this time I think we had a losing record, we went on a little losing streak towards Christmas break, but it feels good to get revenge back.”
