photo courtesy of gobonnies.sbu.edu
By Jeff Uveino
ST. BONAVENTURE, NY — The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team paused all team activities on Thursday following a positive COVID-19 result within the program, the university’s athletics department announced.
A member of the team’s Tier 1 personnel, which includes student-athletes, coaches, team managers and support staff, produced the positive test.
As a result, the team will not travel to “Bubbleville” at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut this coming week, and has shut down all team activities for two weeks.
“It’s unfortunate that this hit us right before we were about to play, and we don’t know how many games we’ll actually get in,” said junior guard Jaren Holmes. “Right now we’re in good spirits, and we’re just going to continue to get better and become closer.”
The Bonnies had been scheduled to play three games in the bubble, including a season-opening matchup against Towson on Wednesday. Stephen F. Austin and Army West Point were SBU’s other two scheduled opponents.
“I think this gets us that much more hungry to play,” Holmes said. “We’re going to be there for each other no matter what, and right now, we’re the ones who have to get each other through this.”
If the program doesn’t return any additional positive tests beforehand, it can resume team activities on Dec. 3. That’s 12 days before the Bonnies are scheduled to play Akron in Cleveland, Ohio, which will now serve as the team’s season opener.
“We’ve done everything right,” Holmes said. “I don’t think there’s a team more focused than us when it comes to handling this. We’re taking this thing seriously.”
The program’s positive test comes in the midst of a spike in COVID-19 cases within both the university community and Cattaraugus County. As of Friday evening, SBU had announced 37 new positive tests this week among students that were tested on campus, according to the university’s online COVID-19 tracker.
The Bonnies are now left with two non-conference games on their schedule, as they will host Buffalo on Dec. 22 after traveling to Akron.
“We’re taking the positives in everything,” Holmes said. “We can find ways to get better throughout these two weeks and be ready to go as soon as we get back.”
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