Bonnies Split Season Series With St. Joe’s In 70-67 Win

By: Nicholas Gallo

The St. Bonaventure Bonnies would get their revenge against the St. Joes Hawks in a 70-67 nail-biting win at the Reilly Center.

Jaylen Adams would convert a go-ahead basket with 18.5 seconds left to give the Bonnies their eighth straight win at home.

The Hawks would hold onto a six-point lead with four minutes to go in the first half. A three by Adams and a battle-tested Bonnies would tie the game up at 33 walking into halftime.

Entering the second half, the Bonnies came out scoring. They would score 11 unanswered points and have a 12-point lead with 13:48 to go in the game.

“In these type of physical games, you just got to go and play,” said Martelli. “We didn’t do that in the beginning of the second half being down 12.”

The Hawks wouldn’t quit as they kept coming after the Bonnies scoring eight unanswered points. After a made free throw by James Demery, the Hawks took a three-point lead with 7:51 left to play. Junior guard, Nelson Kaputo would make a huge three-point shot to tie the game up at 59 with 7:18 left in the game.

Both teams would go back and forth as the game would have 15 ties and 18 lead changes.

With 1:46 seconds left, down by two, Bonas would call a timeout to draw up a play to get a game-tying basket.

After multiple screens, a pass from Courtney Stockard to Ladarien Griffin for a dunk would tie the game up at 67 with a 1:24 to go.

After a St. Joes timeout, the team would go to James Demery who would miss a three-point shot.

With 37 seconds left, Piefrancesco would turn the ball over and St. Bonaventure would take advantage by calling a timeout.

“On the last play out of bounds, we wanted to run a fake handoff and a double away,” said Martelli. “There has to be some composure in these types of moments you can’t just be dribbling the ball all over the place.

Adams scored the go-ahead bucket to put Bonas up 69-67 with 14 seconds left to play.

“We were desperate for a win,” said Bonnies Head Coach Mark Schmidt. “We just found a way, but particularly our defense was much better then it had been on the road the last four games.”

Before tonight’s game, the Bonnies gave up an average of 84.25 points per game in their four-game road stretch. Forcing a Hawks team to shoot 39% from the field and causing 11 turnovers was vital in assisting the Bonnies effort on offense.

In addition to their defense, the Bonnies would have four players in double figures for points. Courtney Stockard and LaDarien Griffin would have stat-stuffing games by both recording double-doubles. Griffin would score ten points and grab 11 rebounds while Stockard would tally 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Kaputo would tie the game at 59 with his first three-point shot with 7:18 left in the second half. He would also convert another three-pointer when being down 66-62 with 3:48 left in the game, keeping Bonas in striking distance to win the game.

St. Bonaventure will take this win and will start preparing for the George Washington Colonials coming to the Reilly Center on Sunday, Jan 28 at 12 p.m.