St. Bonaventure defeated Niagara 94-60 tonight. Mika Adams-Woods led the Bonnies to victory as he tallied a career-high 25 points. Four other Bonaventure players were in double figures tonight while a pair of walk-ons grabbed their first collegiate points. Here’s how tonight’s blowout went down.
After Banks knocked down a jumper on the opening possession, the Bonnies fell into an almost four-minute scoring drought that allowed Niagara to take an early lead. Ahmad Henderson II’s four points, Randy Tucker’s three and Yaw Obeng-Mensah’s free throw put the Purple Eagles on an 8-0 run. Mika Adams-Woods would shut down the scoring run with a jumper and triple of his own as another Henderson jumper was sandwiched in between Adams-Woods buckets. Niagara led 10-7 at the first media timeout of the evening.
Bonaventure scored out of the timeout via a Chad Venning layup before Niagara’s Kwane Marble Jr. knocked one down from beyond the arc. The Bonnies then ripped off a 12-0 run with Noel Brown and Moses Flowers being the main contributors. Flowers tallied a pair of threes and a free throw while Brown grabbed a bucket in the paint along with a free throw of his own. Venning added a pair from the charity stripe before Henderson splashed a three to end the nearly five-minute scoring drought for the Purple Eagles. Bonaventure led 21-16.
Venning and the Bonnies would immediately answer the triple. The redshirt junior earned an and-one layup and began yet another Bonaventure scoring run. While Venning missed his free throw, Flowers picked him up on the next possession with his third three of the game. That gave Flowers 10 points in just over 12 minutes of clock time. Niagara head coach Greg Paulus would take the timeout as his team now trailed by 10.
Venning, Adams-Woods and Brown continued the run grabbing easy buckets and free throws to fuel the 17-0 stretch. Niagara finally ended the Bonnie run as Marble Jr. knocked down a pair of free throws. Branxton Bayless and Adams-Woods traded threes before Venning’s hook provided the final points of the half. Since Niagara led 13-9, Bonaventure outscored the Purple Eagles 36-7. The Bonnies led 45-20 at the half.
Adams-Woods and Venning led the game in first-half scoring as the pair had 12 points each. Flowers was also in double figures after the first 20 minutes with 10 points while both Brown and Henderson had nine points. Henderson’s led the Purple Eagles in scoring at the half. The Bonnies shot 17.26 (65.4%) from the field, 5/8 (62.5%) from deep and 6/9 from the free throw line in the first half. Niagara only made seven of its 23 (30.4%) first-half shots while knocking down three of 12 (25.0%) of its attempted threes and going 3/6 from the charity stripe.
The Bonnies came out of the locker room on fire as the team ripped off an 11-3 run over the first 2:55 of the second half. Banks grabbed the first five points of the run while Venning, Adams-Woods and Assa Essamvous also scored. Assa’s fast-break dunk prompted Niagara to take another timeout. Barry Evans immediately answered the timeout with a fast-break slam of his own before Assa banged a wide-open triple. The Bonnies now led 61-23. Marble Jr’s two free throws ended the 16-3 run to open the half.
The Bonnies kept pouring it on as Admas-Woods hit two threes while Banks and Assa each potted another shot from deep. Niagara finally began to make some shots themselves. Henderson continued to produce with Bre Bullock and Yaw Obeng-Mensah got on the stat sheet. Adams-Woods continued to lead Bonaventure as he had notched 25 points as the game hit the under-eight media timeout of the second half.
The remainder of the second half was played with the teams exchanging buckets.
Head coach Mark Schmidt emptied his bench as Melian Martinez entered the game along with all three walk-ons. Both Broek Ostrom and Anthony Belardinelli grabbed their first collegiate points in the final two minutes of the game. The Bonnies defeated the Purple Eagles 94-60.
Adams-Woods led the game with a career-high 25 points while four other Bonnies were in double figures. Brown (15 points), Venning (14), Flowers (14) and Banks (10) all left their stamp on tonight’s game. Three Purple Eagles scored in double figures tonight. Henderson grabbed a team-high 13 points while both Tucker and Bullock registered 10 points.
The Bonnies shot an unbelievable 38/57 (66.7%) from the field while making 12/19 (63.2%) from beyond the arc and 6/9 from the free throw line. Niagara finished 19/48 (39.6%) from the floor, 7/21 (33.3%) from three and 15/18 (83.3%) from the charity stripe.
St. Bonaventure improves to 6-2 with the win while Niagara drops to 1-6. The Bonnies are back in action at home Saturday against the Sienna Saints. The teams will play for the Franciscan Cup.
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