Photo by Dan Nelligan
Saint Louis defeated St. Bonaventure 73-65 this afternoon. Terrence Hargrove Jr. and Mika Adams-Woods led the game with 17 points each while three other players totaled 15 points. The Bonnies trailed for most of the game with their only lead coming at 5-4 early in the first half. The team only shot 40.0% from the field and 61.9% from the free throw line in the loss. It was the second loss by the Bonnies to the last place team in the conference this week. Here’s how it went down.
Bradley Ezewiro and the Billikens won this afternoon’s opening tipoff which eventually led to the Billikens opening the scoring. Ezewrio wasted no time getting on to the scoresheet as he grabbed a pair of his own misses before finally finishing at the rim. The scoring would not come often for either team in the opening minutes, however, as Terrence Hargrove Jr. added a layup two minutes later. The Bonnies finally broke through just over three minutes into the game as Mika Adams-Woods dove to the cup for two. Adams-Woods then added a triple two possessions later to give Bonaventure their first lead of the night. St. Louis’ Larry Hughes II would then take over as he banged threes on back-to-back offensive trips. The Billikens led 9-5 at the first media timeout.
St. Louis stayed hot from beyond the arc following the timeout as Cian Medley got on the board from deep. Adams-Woods then worked his way to the free throw line shortly after. He knocked down both shots as he had tallied all seven Bonnie points thus far. Bruce Zhang was next to score following an offensive rebound for SLU. The game then went into a more than two-minute scoring drought for the third time in the first half. Charles Pride broke that as his three was the first non-Adams-Woods points for the Bonnies in the game. The Billikens would immediately counter with a pair of layups from Kellen Thames. Adams-Woods got a floating runner to go on the ensuing possession as the Bonnies still trailed by six with under seven minutes to play in the half.
SLU continued to have their way in the paint as the half wound down. Hargrove Jr. and Medley added easy buckets in tight to balloon the Billiken lead to 10. Assa Essamvous then got on the scoresheet with a three as the Bonnies cut back into the deficit. The sophomore struck again on the following possession as he worked his way to the line. He split his free throws to cut the St. Louis lead to 22-16. Next it was Barry Evans getting involved with a floater as the Bonnies opened a quick 6-0 run. Hargrove Jr. appeared to have shut down the Bonnie momentum with a hook, but Moses Flowers immediately responded with a three. The Billikens lead was only three.
Bonaventure thought they had another defensive stop, but Adams-Woods was whistled for a foul on Medley who was throwing up a deep three. He made two of his three free throws to push the SLU lead back to five. The final 1:19 of the first half were scoreless as the Billikens took a 26-21 lead into the halftime locker room. The Bonnies had finally showed some signs of life on the offensive end towards the end of the half and would have to carry that over to begin the second.
Adams-Woods led all scorers at the break as he had nine points in the first 20 minutes. Medley led the Billikens with seven points while Hargrove Jr. (six) and Hughes II (five) followed close behind. St. Louis shot 11/29 (37.9%) from the floor, 2/12 (16.7%) from deep and 2/3 from the line in the first half. The Bonnies went 7/24 (29.2%) from the field, 4/13 (29.2%) from three and 3/6 from the line in the opening period. The Billikens outrebounded the Bonnies 22-15 in the first while turning it over nine times compared to Bonaventure’s eight.
The Bonnies struck first in the second half as Venning got a hook shot to fall. However, Ezewiro worked his way to the line and grabbed a pair of free throws shortly after. The scoring continued as Moses Flowers got a jumper to fall plus the foul. He would miss his free throw, but Assa grabbed the offensive board. That second chance led to a Pride corner three to tie the game at 28 apiece. Ezewiro and SLU would punch right back, though, as he worked his way to the rim for two. Hughes II then added a three to push the Billiken lead back to five. Flowers stopped the bleeding with a pair of free throws, but St. Louis answered right back again. This time it was Hughes II and Hargrove Jr. with back-to-back threes. SLU suddenly led by nine.
Venning scored next before Hargrove Jr. split at the free throw line. Gibson Jimerson then finally found the scoresheet as he splashed his first triple of the game. The Bonnies kept battling, however, as Adams-Woods got to the rack before Evans took over the game. The sophomore drained a corner three before getting a pullup to fall. Hughes II responded with a driving layup, but Adams-Woods answered with the same. The Bonnies continued to inch closer to St. Louis as Evasn fed Assa for a corner three. The Billiken lead was slashed to 45-44 with 11:30 to play.
Hargrove Jr. and the Billikens responded out of the timeout with a straight-away three before Evans scored again with a midrange jumper. Next it was Jimerson’s turn to cash in from deep, but he was immediately answered by Flowers who did the same with a hand in his face. The scoring continued to come fast as Hargrove Jr. busted through coverage for a wide-open, two-handed slam. Daryl Banks III went to the line for a one-and-one on the ensuing possession. However, the fifth-year senior missed the front-end of his shots. The Bonnies then grabbed a stop and a Flowers transition layup to cut the SLU lead back to four. Unfortunately, the Billikens continued to have every answer as Thames got a layup to go and Jimerson flushed a dunk. Mark Schmidt called the timeout as his team was back down eight with 7:19 to play.
St. Louis continued to pile it on following the timeout as Thames was credited with a bucket as Flowers committed a goaltending violation. Bonaventure continued to fight as Pride got to the rim and was fouled. He completed the old-fashioned three-point play. The Bonnies struck again on the following possession as Venning went to the line. The redshirt junior knocked down both his free throws before Adams-Woods got a layup to fall in transition. Travis Ford would call the timeout as the Bonnies had slashed the St. Louis lead to 61-58 with 4:08 left in the game.
Both teams came out of the timeout with empty from the timeout, but Jimerson delivered what felt like a dagger three with just three minutes to play. The Bonnies then entered a drought at possibly the worst time. Bonas could not find the bottom of the hoop as Adams-Woods’ layup at 4:08 would be the last until free throws at 1:32 from Flowers. Before those free throws, the Billikens added an and-one layup from Ezewiro to go up nine. Flowers was then fouled shooting a three and St. Louis was assessed a technical foul on top of that. The Bonnies had a chance to grab five points on one possession from the line. While Flowers made all three of his free throws, Pride missed both the technical shots. The teams would trade free throw the final minute of the game as St. Louis won this one 73-65.
Hargrove Jr. and Adams-Woods led all scorers with 17 points each. Hughes II, Jimerson and Flowers all had 15-point efforts this afternoon as well. The Billikens finished the game shooting 27/58 (46.6%) from the floor, 9/25 (36.0%) from deep and 10/12 (83.3%) from the charity stripe. St. Bonaventure shot 22/55 (40.0%) from the field, 8/25 (32.0%) from three and 13/21 (61.9%) from the free throw line. St. Louis outrebounded the Bonnies 43-26 while turning the ball over 14 time compared to only nine from Bonas.
Coach Schmidt addressed his team’s loss postgame. “We were slow to react and outrebounded all game,” he said, “We just didn’t play well today.” The 17th year Bonaventure headman then touched on his team’s rough week. “We’re going to forget about these last two games and start with a clean slate Wednesday in Brooklyn,” Schmidt said. He then spoke on the impact Barry Evans had in the game. “I thought he played well but it’s hard to play him at the five,” Schmidt said, “If there was a positive tonight, he was it.” Coach Schmidt ended talking about the Atlantic 10 as a whole. “You have to be humble enough to realize you can get beat on any given night while also being confident enough that you can win on any given night,” he said.
The Bonnies will play Wednesday in Brooklyn in the second round of the A10 Tournament. They will be either the seventh or eighth seed. If George Mason defeats Richmond this afternoon, Bonas will be the eight seed and face St. Joe’s at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. If Richmond defeats George Mason, The Bonnies will be the seven seed and play the winner of the 10/15 game Wednesday evening.