4-2
St. Bonaventure
5-1
Second Half Charge Falls Short At St. Bonaventure
12/3/2014 12:00:00β―AM | Men's Basketball
OLEAN, NY – The University at Buffalo, The State University of New York men's basketball team outscored St. Bonaventure, 45-38 over the final 20 minutes, but was unable to overcome a slow start, falling to the host Bonnies, 72-63, Wednesday night at the Reilly Center. The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Bulls, who are now 4-2 on the season. St. Bonaventure improved to 5-1.
The Bulls struggled offensively in the first half, shooting just 6-of-27 from the floor and scoring a season-low 18 points as they trailed into the half, 34-18. Despite the large deficit, the Bulls made a game out of it in the second half as they shot over 53% from the floor.
The Bonnies scored the opening bucket of the second half to take their largest lead of the game at 37-18. St. Bonaventure continued to lead by 19 at 43-24 when the Bulls went on a 15-3 run to pull within 46-39 with 11:44 left. Nine of the points in the run came from sophomore Shannon Evans, who converted on two conventional three-point plays and then a triple from long range. A pair of free throws from junior Raheem Johnson capped off the run.
However, the Bonnies responded with a 13-3 run which put them back up 58-42 with 8:06 remaining. The Bulls managed to cut it to 12 on two more occasions, but St. Bonaventure continued to lead by 17, 70-53 with 2:08 left. The Bulls got late three pointers from senior Will Regan and freshman Mory Diane as they closed out the game on a 10-2 run, falling 72-63.
"I credit St. Bonaventure and how they came out to start the game tonight," said head coach Bobby Hurley. "We talked about getting out to a quick start, and we've done that the last few games, but tonight our offense was sluggish and out of synch on that end of the floor. Defensively, we had too many breakdowns and they hurt us in transition especially early and we let them get to the rim too easily as well, which really hasn't happened to us too many times this year."
Evans led all players tonight with 21 points and six assists. This was his third 20-point game of the season. The six assists are one short of his season-high. Regan added 10 points and six rebounds, while junior Justin Moss had eight points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
Johnson finished with a career-best eight points as he went a perfect 3-for-3 from the floor and added two more from the free throw line. He also had four rebounds and tied his career high with three blocked shots. Diane finished with his first five points of the year.
St. Bonaventure placed four players in double figures led by 19 points from Dion Wright and 17 points and 13 rebounds from Youssou Ndoye.
The Bulls will finally close out their season-long six-game road trip on Sunday afternoon when they head to Robert Morris. Tip off is scheduled for 1:00 pm.
