La Salle defeated St. Bonaventure 72-59 tonight. The Explorers were led by Daeshon Shepherd’s 23 points along with an elite 51.0% shooting clip from the field and 10 made threes. Chad Venning led the Bonnies with 23 points and was the only real offensive threat to La Salle all game. Here’s how tonight’s crippling loss went down.
La Salle won the opening tip this evening, but it was Chad Venning and the Bonnies who struck first. The redshirt junior center took a feed from Assa Essamvous and laid it home to put the first two points of the game on the board. Daeshon Shepherd and the Explorers would not remain scoreless for long as the junior guard splashed La Salle’s first three of the game. Rokas Jocius then worked his way to the free throw line where he knocked down a pair of free throws.
The offenses would continue to stay hot as Moses Flowers buried a triple before Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi and Shepherd both cashed in shots from beyond the arc. Venning had the answer for the Bonnies on the other end of the floor as he grabbed back-to-back buckets. However, Shepherd stayed hot from deep as he splashed his third three in the opening minutes. La Salle jumped out to an early 14-9 lead just over six minutes into the game.
The Explorers kept to foot on the gas following the first media timeout. Shepherd blocked Mika Adams-Woods on one end before being on the receiving end of a lob on the other. Flowers would then get to the free throw line but only convert on one of his two free throws. Now it was Bonaventure’s turn to push the pace as a defensive stop led to a Daryl Banks III triple before Noel Brown scored off a feed from Banks. The game took a breather for the under-12 media timeout with La Salle’s lead trimmed to 16-15.
Bonas continued to push following the break, forcing the shot clock violation and finding a reverse lay from Charles Pride. It was an 8-0 run as the Bonnies led for the first time in the game. The lead would not last long, though, as Ryan Zan cashed in a midrange jumper and Jhamir Brickus netted his first three of the game. Adams-Woods was next to get into the stat sheet as he took a defensive rebound all the way to the hole for two. The threes then began to rain down as Brickus and Adams-Woods traded triples before Shepherd knocked in his fourth from deep in the half. The Explorers had extended their lead to 27-22.
Venning would be fouled flowing Shepherd’s make and calmly sink both shots to trim the Bonnie deficit back to three. The center then extended his streak of consecutive games with a block to 28 straight games before knocking down a jumper just 20 seconds later. La Salle responded to the Venning bucket on the following possession as Jocius got the layup to fall. The 6-foot-10 sophomore then grabbed a second layup in a row for the Explorers but was immediately canceled by a Venning fade-away jumper. The clock ticked under two minutes to play in the half with La Salle leading 31-28.
The Explorers kept pushing late in the half as Anwar Gill scored down low and got the foul called on Brown. He made his free throw to complete the old-fashioned three-point play. Banks would then quickly miss a three on the other end before Jocius was fouled. He missed both free throws, but La Salle grabbed the offensive rebound. Brickus capitalized on his team’s final possession of the first half with a foul-line jumper. The Bonnies came up empty on their final possession as the Explorers led 36-28 at halftime.
Shepherd led all scorers at the break with 14 points while Jocius and Brickus both totaled six for the Explorers. Venning was the only Bonnie over five points in the opening 20 minutes as he had 12 points. La Salle shot 13/26 (50.0%) from the floor, 7/14 (50.5%) from three and 3/5 from the charity stripe in the first half. St. Bonaventure went 11/26 (42.3%) from the field, 3/7 (42.9%) from deep and 3/4 from the free throw line. The Explorers outrebounded the Bonnies 14-12 while turning it over three times compared to Bonaventure’s two.
After starting the second half with a pair of empty possessions, Brickus grabbed a jumper to push the La Salle lead to 10. It was tied for the largest of the game. Venning would then take over scoring three straight baskets and cutting the Explorer lead down to four. However, La Salle would respond to Venning’s 6-0 run as Brickus banged a three ball. Jocius was next to grab a layup before Venning was fouled on the other end. He hit both free throws to cut the Explorer lead back to seven.
Both offenses then entered lulls as the Bonnies got sloppy with the basketball. Multiple turnovers led to a midrange and a dunk from Brantley on back-to-back possessions. La Salle now led by a game-high 11 points. After nearly turning the ball over yet again, Brown was fouled going up and would shoot two. He split his free throws before checking out for Venning. The Bonnies then scored again as Banks knocked down a midrange. The game ticked under 12 minutes to play with La Salle leading 47-39.
Shepherd struck for the Explorers out of the under-12 media timeout with a pair of layups to balloon the lead to 12. Assa Essamvous would then get on the board with a straight-away triple before Gill went to the line for a pair of free throws. He made one of two shots off Venning’s third foul of the game. Flowers was next to score at the rim and draw the foul in the process. The fifth-year guard missed his free throw before Shepherd went to the rack on the other end. He got the bucket to fall and drew the foul on Venning. It was Venning fourth foul of the game. Shepherd knocked in his free throw as the Explorers now led 55-44 with 7:42 remaining.
Adams-Woods was next to head to the free throw line as he was fouled driving down the left side of the lane. However, the above-average free throw shooter split from the stripe, only cutting the lead to 10. The Explorers continued to pour on the points as Vahlberg Fasasi splashed a pair of threes and Brickus slammed home a dunk off his own steal. Mark Schmidt called the timeout as his team suddenly trailed by 18 with just 5:31 to play.
La Salle continued to make the Bonnies look abysmal on the offensive end of the floor as Brantley stole the ball from Banks and threw it ahead to Shepherd who slammed it home. The Explorers extended their lead to 20 points. Flowers responded with a corner three before Vahlberg Fasasi was fouled. He split from the free throw line before Flowers got a runner to go. The Explorers led by 16 with 3:39 remaining in the game.
Gill would be the next to be fouled and make both his free throws as the time continued to be an enemy of the Bonnies. Bonas continued to play the foul game as Brickus was next to shoot. He potted both shots to put his team back up 20. Venning went to the line on the following possession as he drew a foul on Brantley. The center cashed in both free throws before Banks splashed a triple to cut the Explorer lead to 15.
The Bonnies needed a small miracle in the final two minutes of the game. That would not happen as Gill grabbed a layup as the shot clock was dying down. Kyrell Luc got on the scoresheet splitting free throws as the game ticked under a minute to play. Flowers added an old-fashioned three-point play as a formality to the final score as the Explorers took home the 72-59 victory.
Shepherd led all scorers this evening with 23 points while Venning tailed close behind with 22 points. Other notable scorers were Brickus with 15, Flowers with 14 and Vahlberg Fasasi with 10. The Explorers shot 26/51 (51.0%) from the field, 10/24 (41.7%) from deep and 10/14 (71.4%) from the charity stripe. The Bonnies went 21/48 (43.8%) from the floor, 6/17 (35.3%) from three (68.8%) from the free throw line. La Salle outrebounded Bonas 27-20 while turning the ball over eight times compared to Bonaventure’s nine.
The Bonnies drop to 16-10 overall and 7-7 in Atlantic 10 play while the Explorers improve to 13-14 overall and 4-10 in conference play. Bonaventure will head to UMass to face the Minutemen on Saturday afternoon in a game that will go very far in determining seeding foe the A10 Tournament.