photo courtesy of gobonnies.sbu.edu
By Jeff Uveino
MOON TOWNSHIP, PA — When Sincere Carry tied the game, all of the momentum was in Duquesne’s favor.
The Dukes had completed a 9-0 run after trailing for the entire second half, and prompted a hearty roar from a rowdy UPMC Events Center crowd.
However, St. Bonaventure guard Kyle Lofton didn’t seem to mind.
With 1:14 left in the game, Lofton nailed a three-pointer to put the Bonnies men’s basketball team up for good on its way to an 83-80 win over the Dukes on Saturday afternoon.
“I knew I was going to be the one to shoot it,” Lofton said. “In that type of moment, the coaches trust me. They depended on me, so I was confident and I stuck it.”
The shot was just one of many big-time offensive plays in the game, as the teams traded blows the whole way in front of a crowd that featured a sea of both Bona’s brown and white, and the blue and red of the Dukes.
Lofton hit five of his six shot attempts from beyond the arc. He finished with 21 points and seven assists.
“The thing I was most proud of was that whenever they made a play, we answered,” Bona head coach Mark Schmidt said. “To be able to do that against a really good team shows that we’re growing.”
Seven players reached double-digit scoring in the game, and the teams combined to shoot 24-for-54 from beyond the arc (44 percent).
Jaren English scored 15 points for the Bonnies, the sixth time this season that he has reached that number.
Dom Welch added 14 points and nine rebounds, while Osun Osunniyi racked up 12 points and nine rebounds.
“I think (the win) shows our character and toughness, and what we can be in the future,” Lofton said. “We have guys that can score the ball, and it was good to have multiple guys in double figures.”
Duquesne’s three-point shooting kept it in the game the entire way, as the Dukes hit on 14-of-34 triples.
Tavian Dunn-Martin shot 7-for-15 on his own from beyond the arc on his way to a game-high 25 points.
After being held scoreless in the first half, Carry came alive in the second and finished with 17 points. Baylee Steele added 15 points for the Dukes.
“The game plan was to try to take away their inside game,” Schmidt said. “Even though they played really well, we still made the plays that we needed to make. Everybody did what they needed to do.”
With Osunniyi in foul trouble for much of the first half, Amadi Ikpeze played 15 minutes off the bench and put up four points to go with six rebounds. Osunniyi played just over 24 minutes.
The win boosted SBU to 16-8 overall, while Duquesne fell to 17-6 overall.
More importantly, it moved the Bonnies to 8-3 in Atlantic 10 play, while the Dukes fell to 7-4.
The teams will meet again at the Reilly Center on Feb. 26 in a game that could potentially have a large impact on seeding for the A-10 tournament in March.
However, Schmidt said that he isn’t looking that far ahead.
“You learn how to win by winning,” Schmidt said. “We can’t get satisfied and we can’t get comfortable.”
The Bonnies will travel to St. Joseph’s on Tuesday to play the Hawks, who are 0-9 in the A10.
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