St. Bonaventure junior guard Kyle Lofton swished the first of his squad’s 15 triples 90 seconds into men’s basketball’s regular season finale Friday. It would take GW nearly 30 minutes to find the bottom of the hoop from beyond the arc in its worst three-point outing all season.
If the Bonnies (13-3, 11-3 A-10) had failed to score in the second half, they still would have topped the Colonials (4-11, 3-5 A-10), who could only muster 21 points in the first half and 20 points in the second frame. But St. Bonaventure nailed over 40 points in each half to crush GW 88–41.
“We just didn’t have enough effort there to stop some of the plays they were making, and that happens sometimes,” head coach Jamion Christian said. “They can get hot, and they can get going a little bit, and a team like that, if you don’t start to string together some stops and finishes, they can get it going. And that’s what they did tonight.”
The Bonnies’ defense smothered GW’s leading scorers. Sophomore duo guard James Bishop and forward Jamison Battle usually combine to score 36.9 points a game. Bishop leads the league in scoring, averaging 19.3 points per game and Battle follows closely behind at No. 5 with 17.7 per contest.
But against St. Bonaventure, the duo combined for just 16 points. Battle led the team with 10 and was the only Colonial to get into the double-digits. Bishop, who was closely followed all night, only scored six points, two of which came from the charity stripe. He attempted just seven shots, down from his season average of almost 15 attempts per game.
“They played him really closely tonight, and I don’t think we got enough attempts for him,” Christian said. “That’s on me to open up some opportunities for our guys to score the ball, and we just weren’t able to do that consistent enough tonight.”
Junior forward Ricky Lindo Jr., who averaged a double-double heading into the game, went 0-for-5 from the field before netting his first bucket. He ended the night 3-of-10 with only three boards.
St. Bonaventure’s scorers had a field day as five Bonnies reached double figures, and two players – junior guard Jaren Holmes and sophomore guard Alejandro Vasquez – led the floor with 18 points apiece.
Shots were falling all game for the Bonnies. In the first half, they hit 54.8 percent and increased production in the second half to sink 62.1 percent. Three-point range is where St. Bonaventure did its most damage. The squad nailed 8-of-14 in the first half and hit 7-of-15 in the second frame for a total of 45 points from deep.
The Colonials had a harder time finding the bottom of the net, firing at a .333 clip from the field in the first frame and .318 in the second half. The team went cold from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes, missing all six attempts. The squad hit 2-of-7 in the second half for six total points from deep.
Battle got the ball rolling with a jumper and Lofton responded with his first trey of the night. Freshman guard Lincoln Ball sunk a jumper to bring GW within one, but St. Bonaventure strung together a five-point run to take a two-possession lead.
Sophomore forward Hunter Dean interrupted a passing lane, nabbed a steal and slammed it through the rim to bring GW within two, but St. Bonaventure opened the floodgates on the offensive end. The Bonnies went on an 11-point run and held GW scoreless for seven minutes.
The Colonials worked the lead down to eight before a 13-4 tilt pushed the advantage to 17 for the Bonnies. Two triples from St. Bonaventure closed out the first half, giving St. Bonaventure a 21-point lead heading into the final 20 minutes.
“Our shots in the first half were really good,” Christian said. “We were really encouraged. In a lot of ways, that’s the best we’ve run offense against them in the two years of playing them. We just weren’t able to finish the easy ones. It gets magnified when we’re not getting stops. I think they scored nine of their last 10 possessions in the first half.”
Battle started the scoring off again, but an 11-2 spurt from the Bonnies caused Christian to go to his bench, subbing out Bishop, Battle, Lindo Jr. and Dean in exchange for a core who averaged less than 10 minutes a game heading into the contest.
Sophomore forward Miles Gally checked into his first collegiate game, nabbing an offensive board and kicking it out to keep GW’s possession alive. Graduate student guard Brandon Leftwich sliced and diced through traffic to slam the ball through the rim and inject energy back into the squad.
“I wanted to give those guys the opportunity to play,” Christian said. “Those guys are good players. I wanted them to give us a bit of a spark. I thought they did that. I thought they came in and played really well for us, finishing at the rim, and sometimes it’s just about giving some energy, and they were able to do that.”
But 30 seconds after the dunk, St. Bonaventure hit another triple. This time, freshman guard Tyler Brelsford responded with a triple of his own, but the damage was done. The Bonnies worked the lead to 49 points before Brelsford chipped at it again with another trey. St. Bonaventure tacked on another point from the charity stripe to nab a decisive 88–41 win.
Now the Colonials turn their attention to the Atlantic 10 tournament.
“With the way we can score the ball, with the guys we have on our team, there’s no doubt in my mind that we can make a lot of noise this March,” Christian said.
GW will return to action Wednesday to take on either Fordham or Saint Joseph’s in the first round of the tournament. Tipoff is to be determined, but the squad will start the tournament in the Siegel Center.
