Richmond defeated St. Bonaventure 65-54 this afternoon. Jordan King led all scores with 18 points while Flowers’ 15 led the Bonnies. Head Coach Mark Schmidt’s team came into this game on upset alert following a massive win at VCU earlier this week. The Bonnies fell victim to the letdown spot as poor shooting and rebounding arguably cost Bonaventure the game. Here’s how it all went down this afternoon.
The teams got off to a fast offensive start this afternoon. Isaiah Bigelow and Dji Bailey grabbed quick buckets for Richmond before Mika Adams-Woods got the Bonnies on the board with a layup. Bigelow then sank the first three pointer of the game to put the Spiders up 7-2. Venning and Quinn traded points in the paint on the next two possessions which was followed by a Banks fade-away jumper as the shot clock expired and a Pride triple. The game was tied at nine at the first media timeout.
Mikkel Tyne made a layup out of the timeout for Richmond to retake the lead. It would now be the Bonnies turn go on a run. Brown scored from close with a nice move before Flowers got to the hole for a layup and bombed one in from deep. Jordan King would make a layup on the other end but Adams-Woods’ layup and a second Flowers three made it a 12-2 run and gave Bonas a 21-13 lead.
Just as quickly as the Bonnies had ballooned the lead, the Spiders took it right back. Bailey, Tyne and King all knocked down threes to pull back ahead 22-21. Richmond would not be done just yet as Quinn, Jason Roche and Mike Walz also added buckets. The Richmond 15-0 run and the Bonaventure 9:29 scoring drought finally came to an end as Assa Essamvous cashed a mid-range jumper. The half ended with Flowers missing three and a Richmond turnover. Mark Schmidt’s team was extremely luck to only be down five.
Moses Flowers led all scorers with eight points at the half. Bigelow, Tyne, Bailey and King all totaled five first-half points. No other player had more than five points in the first 20 minutes of play. The Spiders were 12/32 (37.5%) from the floor, 4/15 (26.7%) from deep and 0/0 from the free throw line. The Bonnies shot 10/27 (37.0%) from the field, 3/10 (30.0%) from beyond the arc and 0/0 from the charity stripe. Richmond outrebounded Bonaventure 20-16 while the Bonnies turned the ball over six times compared to three from the Spiders.
The second half began with Venning and King trading jumpers. Venning then worked his way to the line for the first time and made one of two. King followed that with a layup. The Bonnies then showed some signs of life as Assa made a three and Adams-Woods got to the cup for two. Jordan King let it fly off a Banks turnover to open a 6-0 run for the Spiders that also featured a Walz jumper and Bailey free throw. Flowers would cash his third make from beyond the arc to break the run and another scoreless streak of more than four minutes. The Spiders eld 38-34 with under 12 minutes remaining.
As they have done most of the game, the Spiders immediately reextended the lead. King, Quinn and Bailey all scored in the pain to give Richmond the largest lead of the night at 48-38 with under eight minutes left. Charles Pride cashed one of his two free throws before Quinn hot a foul-line jumper. The Bonnies then showed signs of life with a 6-0 run. Vennign made a jumper before Pride made a pair of free throws and a runner in the paint. The Spiders once again immediately answered as Bailey and Bigelow made mod-ranges to push the Richmond lead back to nine.
Pride once again worked his way to the free throw line on back-to-back possessions and made three of four to cut the lead back to six. The Spiders would grab an offensive rebound to milk nearly 50 seconds off the clock before missing the front end of a one-and-one. The Bonnies missed a shot on the other end of the which led to a pair of King free throws. Venning would get to the hoop and draw contact next. He made both his free throws before Bailey cancelled him out on the other end. The Spiders led 58-50 with 1:40 remaining.
The Bonnies continued to work quickly on the other end of the floor where Venning got another bucket in the paint. Schmidt elected to play the foul game as King was immediately put on the line and hit both to push the Spider lead back to eight. Venning cashed another bucket in close with 1:05 left as the deficit continues to bounce between six and eight. Next it was Bailey’s turn to head to the line. He potted one of his two free throws. Flowers and Pride both missed shots on the next possession and Bigelow was fouled. He made both his free throws ahead of another dysfunctional possession. Bigelow made two more free throws as an end-of-game formality to push the score to its final mark of 65-54.
Jordan King rode a high-scoring second half to a game-high 18 points, Flowers led the Bonnies with 15 points this afternoon. Bigelow and Bailey each totaled 13 points while Quinn had 10 for the Spiders. Venning also tallied 13 points while Adams-Woods scored 11 points. The Spiders shot 24/55 (43.6%) from the floor, 5/21 (23.8%) from beyond the arc and 12/18 (66.7%) from the free throw line. The Bonnies went 19/49 (38.8%) from the field, 5/17 (29.4%) from deep and 11/14 (78.6%) from the charity stripe. The Spiders outrebounded the Bonnies 33-32 while Bonaventure turned the ball over 14 times compared to Richmond’s six.
The Bonnies dropped to 10-4 over and 1-1 in Atlantic 10 play with the loss. Richmond improved to 9-5 overall and 1-0 in conference play with the win. The Bonnies will be back in action Saturday afternoon inside the Reilly Center against Fordham.
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