Photo by Dan Nelligan
Fresh off their thrilling overtime victory against Davidson, St. Bonaventure will visit La Salle and UMass this week. The Bonnies will look to squash their offensive road struggles for good after a fantastic showing at Fordham last week. The Explorers might be low in the Atlantic 10 standings at the start of play today but should not be taken lightly. La Salle has a history of playing spoiler, especially inside Tom Gola Arena.
The Bonnies
St. Bonaventure enters tonight with a 16-9 overall and 7-6 conference record. The Bonnies have won two straight and three of the last four games which has boosted them to the current five seed in the Atlantic 10. Bonas has struggled away from the Reilly Center for most of conference play but appeared to have broken out of the road slump with an 85-point outburst at Fordham last week.
Chad Venning has reestablished himself as the scoring leader for Mark Schmidt’s team. The redshirt junior scores a team-high 14.0 points per game to go along with Bonaventure highs in blocks (48), made free throws (67) and attempted free throws (97). Venning adds 4.8 rebounds per game and an active 27-game block streak to his solid 2023-24 season.
Mika Admas-Wood and Charles Pride are the only other Bonnies averaging double figures right now. Adams-Woods scores 13.6 points per game through 24 games this season. The Cincinnati transfer also chips in 23 steals, 42 threes and a team-high 87 assists. Pride averages 12.0 points and a team-best 6.5 rebounds per contest. The Bryant transfer also leads the team in steals (29) and free throw percentage (85.1%) to go along with 41 assists and 34 made threes.
Moses Flowers and Daryl Banks III continue to play platoon roles. The fifth-year seniors are averaging 9.0 and 8.4 points per game. Flowers adds 40 triples, 27 assists and 16 steals to his stat line while Banks chips in 37 threes, 65 assists and 18 steals. Assa Essamvous was named to last week’s A10 Honor Role as he finally broke out with two big games. The sophomore raised his average to 7.7 points per game while hauling in 5.4 rebounds per contest. Assa also has 25 steals, 23 assists and 36 threes as well.
Noel Brown and Barry Evans have both become vital pieces to this team. Brown averages 6.0 points per game to go with 13 blocks and 13 assists in relief of Venning. Evans may only score 3.4 points per game, but the sophomore has registered a total of 28 steals, 10 blocks, 31 assists along with 5.1 rebounds per contest. Kyrell Luc has also played important minutes this season, averaging 2.6 points and totaling 21 assists.
The Bonnies enter tonight's game 70th in the NET Rankings and 79th in the KenPom Ratings. Bonas presents the explorers with a chance to grab a quadrant two opportunity.
Projected Starting Five: Assa, Adams-Woods, Flowers, Pride, Venning
The Opponent
The Explorers come into tonight’s game at 12-14 overall and 3-10 in conference. La Salle is coming off its first conference home win with an 82-81 victory over UMass. The win broke a five-game losing streak with that win. Their only other conference wins came at Fordham and at George Washington.
Fran Dunphy’s team is led by the dynamic guard duo of Khalil Brantley and Jhamir Brickus. Brantley, a 6-foot-1 junior, averages 15.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. He also adds 93 assists, 33 steals and 77 made free throws on 100 attempts (77.0%) to his stat line. Brickus, a 5-foot-11 senior, averages 14.8 points and 3.6 rebounds per game to go along with 111 assists, 33 steals, 45 triples and an 84.7% free throw conversion rate.
La Salle has three other players averaging more than 8.5 points per contest. Daeshon Shepherd averages 9.6 points and a team-high 5.7 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-5 junior does not shoot the three well as he enters tonight as a 27.0% three-point shooter this season. Anwar Gill averages 9.5 points and 3.6 rebounds per contest. The 6-foot-4 senior adds 52 assists and 25 steals to his resume while also being a poor shooter from beyond the arc at just 21.3% this season. Andres Marrero is another solid scorer for this team at 8.8 points per game. The redshirt sophomore guard leads La Salle in threes with 49 makes in 121 attempts (40.5%).
The Explorers big men have been the team’s weak point this season. Rokas Jocius leads the group of forwards with 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-10, 260-pound sophomore also adds 21 blocks in 22 games. Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi, a 6-foot-8 freshman, averages 6.1 points and 2.7 rebounds per contest while Ryan Zan, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, chips in 3.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.
La Salle currently sits 229th in the NET Rankings and 244th in the KenPom Ratings. The Explorers will be a very low quadrant three opponent for the Bonnies tonight.
Projected Starting Five: Brickus, Brantley, Shepherd, Vahlberg Fasasi, Jocius
Players to Watch
Chad Venning – La Salle is another bottom of the barrel A10 team that cannot hang with the best big men in the conference. The Explorers allowed 22 points and 8 rebounds to DaRon Holmes, 16 points and 9 rebounds to Christ Essandoko and 27 points and 13 rebounds to Keyshawn Hall. I had Venning as my pick to click against Fordham, but he got into foul trouble early. Instead, Noel Brown had 18 points. The big men for the Bonnies will feast tonight.
Khalil Brantley – Brantley is the more consistent of the scorer between himself and Brickus. As the two best players on La Salle, both will likely have an impact on this game. Brickus has been inconsistent where Brantley has scored double figures in 14 of 17 and seven straight A10 games. The senior guard has tallied 20+ six times this season while not being a major threat from beyond the arc. Brantley will try to get to the rack and free throw line often in this one.
Last Season’s Matchup
The Explorers and Bonnies are even at 16 wins apiece in the all-time series with each other. Bonaventure is 6-9 all time at La Salle including a win two seasons ago at Gola Arena. However, the Explorers took last season’s matchup inside the Reilly Center 76-70. Nosh Nickelberry led the team with 18 points while Brantley totaled 16 points. La Salle has five other players with at least seven points, too. Five Bonnies were in double figures in the loss as Banks and Venning led the team with 16 points each. Luc, Assa and Flowers had 10 each in the game. The Explorers made 10 threes in the win.
Predictions and Keys to the Game
The Bonnies are once again the better team entering a matchup with La Salle. However, it is well documented that all stats and assumptions can be thrown out the window when these teams meet. St. Bonaventure will win this game by winning down low and shutting down one of the two dynamic Explorer guards.
La Salle will need to shut down the Bonnie bigs while having big scoring days from Brickus and Brantley. Even with the game being on the road, I have newfound faith in this team to get the job done this evening. Venning, Assa, Brown and Evans will all be key tonight in a double-digit win for the Bonnies.
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