Photo by Dan Nelligan
St. Bonaventure defeated Siena 89-56 this afternoon and reclaimed the Franciscan Cup. Mika Adams-Woods led the charge for the Bonnies with a game-high 23 points. Chad Venning had himself a 20-point night while Flowers and Banks were also in double figures. Here’s how yet another blowout win went down.
Siena took control of the opening tip and grabbed the first two buckets of the game as Michael Eley knocked down a pair of mid-range jumpers. Chad Venning and the Bonnies would punch right back, though, as the redshirt junior grabbed a layup and a deep two. Mika Adams-Woods would sink a three between Venning baskets to put the Bonnies on a 7-0 run. This prompted Siena head coach Carmen Maciariello to call the early timeout.
The Saints responded well to timeout as Michael Evbagharu cashed in from deep to tie the game at seven. The teams would trade free throws and layups over the next four minutes. Assa Essamvous then made a jumper to spark the Bonaventure offense. Moses Flowers and Mason Courtney traded threes before the Bonnies opened an 8-0 run with another tripe from Flowers, a three from Adams-Woods and layup from Venning. The Bonnies led 24-14
Adams-Woods and Venning would continue to pour on the points while the team kept up its suffocating defense. The lead sat around 10 for the next few minutes before the Bonnies began to pull away even more. Adams-Woods registered three straight buckets before Venning and Daryl Banks got in on the action. St. Bonaventure ended the half on a 9-0 run to balloon the lead to 21.
Adams-Woods led all scorers at the half with 19 while Venning was the only other player in double figures with 12. Siena’s Eley and Courtney along with Bonaventure’s Flowers had six points apiece. The Bonnies shot 17/29 (58.6%) from the floor, 7/12 (58.3%) from three and made all five attempted free throws in the first half. The Siants shot 10/29 (34.5%) from the field, 3/13 (23.1%) from deep and made two of five from the charity stripe in the game’s opening 20 minutes.
The second half began as the first half ended. The Bonnies continued to expand the lead on the backs of Admas-Woods and Venning. Assa got involved in the scoring early in the half as well as he cashed a corner three. It was Banks’ turn to heat up next. The redshirt senior rattled off six straight points via a corner triple and an and-one layup. Noel Brown also got in on the scoring party as his eight quick points, combined with Banks, put the Bonnies on a 14-2 run.
Next it was Kyrell Luc’s turn to eat. The guard got in on the scoring with a triple followed by a layup with around eight minutes remaining. The Bonnies would put the exclamation point on the win as Adams-Woods threw a lob to Venning to push the lead to 37. Head coach Mark Schmidt emptied his bench as he has done the last two games as the Bonnies cruised to an 89-56 victory.
Adams-Woods led the game in scoring with 23 while Venning followed close behind with 20 points. Flowers and Banks were also in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively. No Saint was in double figures this afternoon as Evbagharu and Courtney led Siena with nine points each.
The Bonnies finished the game shooting 32/58 (55.2%) from the field, made 10 of 24 (41.7%) attempted threes and went 15/20 from the free throw line. The Saints shot 21/55 (38.2%) from the floor, 6/21 (28.6%) from deep and 8/15 (53.3%) from the charity stripe.
Mark Schmidt praised his defense postgame. “Hot shooting won’t last. Defense does. We need to keep playing good defense which is what we have been doing over the last handful of games,” said Schmidt. Freshman Miles Rose saw the first game action of his career today. “We got into foul trouble today and Miles [Rose] stepped up as the 9th or 10th man. He defended well today and will continue to help us if we need him as that 9th or 10th man as we keep going here,” said Schmidt.
Adams-Woods expressed his newfound comfortability in the offense. “Each game I feel like I am getting more comfortable. I am going to keep working and shots are falling,” said Adams-Woods. Banks then spoke about the team’s versatility and his role on the team. “It’s a lot harder to guard us with all the weapons we have this year,” said Banks, “I just want to win so whatever coach asks me to do I’m going to do it.”
St. Bonaventure improves to 7-2 with today’s win while Siena falls to 2-8. The Bonnies travel to Springfield, Massachusetts Saturday to take on 11th ranked Florida Atlantic University.