PDF Boxscore

Watch The Complete Game

Social Media Recap

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – A Matthew Wright steal and lay-up with 24 seconds remaining provided the winning points as the St. Bonaventure men's basketball team (4-2) rallied in the final minutes for an 82-79 victory over the University at Buffalo (2-7) Saturday night at the Reilly Center.

Demitrius Conger had another steal for the Bonnies with seven seconds left to thwart the Bulls' attempt to regain the lead, and the senior hit two free throws to provide the final margin.

Conger finished with a season-high 20 points and Wright added 11 for Bonaventure, which played in its fifth straight game decided by five points or less. Senior Chris Johnson reached double-figure scoring for the fifth straight game with 14 points, and junior Charlon Kloof rounded out the fourth consecutive contest SBU has placed at least four players in double figures with his 10-point effort.

For the Bonnies, the three-point margin of victory marks the first time in program history that a team has started the season by having five of its first six games decided by five points or less. It's also just the third time in the 93-year history of SBU basketball that a team has had five consecutive games at any point of the year decided by five points or less.

Trailing 79-76 following two Jarod Oldham free throws, the Bonnies started their comeback with a Conger steal and dunk with 1:07 remaining – the first of three SBU steals and four UB turnovers in the final 67 seconds.

Poor free-throw shooting nearly hurt the Brown and White for the second game in a row as the Bonnies missed a season-high-tying 16 free throws and ended up shooting 57.9 percent from the stripe (22-38). However, SBU was able to make up for it by netting a season-high 23 fastbreak points, while also tying season highs in points in the paint (36) and points off turnovers (21). On the other side, the Bonnies committed just nine turnovers.

Bonaventure controlled a majority of the first half, leading by as much as 10 with just under five minutes left, but allowed UB to end the opening stanza on a 13-3 run to go into the locker room tied at the half for the first time this year, 39-39. SBU did not trail at all in the opening 20 minutes, but that wasn't the case in the second 20 minutes as the lead changed hands 16 times and the game was tied on six occasions.

Marquise Simmons finished just shy of his second career double-double with nine points and a team-high eight rebounds in his first start of the season. Senior Eric Mosley added nine points and three assists off the bench to complement a season-high scoring performance by the Bonnies.

UB also placed four in double-figure scoring, led by 20 from Oldham. Tony Watson added 15, Javon McCrea netted 13 and Will Regan contributed 10 for the Bulls, who made a season-high 13 3-pointers (13-24 – 54.2 percent). McCrea's 11th point of the night was the 1,000th of the junior's career.

The Bulls mustered only 39 points in a 54-39 home loss to Temple on Wednesday, and came into the contest averaging just 59.1 points per game, but finished with a season-high point total against a Bona defense that was surrendering 67.8 points per night.

St. Bonaventure returns to action on Tuesday in the third edition of the battle for the Franciscan Cup against Siena in the Reilly Center. The game will be shown nationally on the NBC Sports Network and has been moved to a 9 p.m. start to accommodate the broadcast.

GAME NOTES: The Bonnies have now won five straight meetings against UB …Conger added four assists and two steals … Wright tied a career high by pulling down seven rebounds … Youssou Ndoye came off the bench for the first time this year and scored five points, grabbed five rebounds and rejected three shots in 16 minutes … Johnson had a career-high four steals … Jordan Gathers scored his first points since the season opener on a left-handed slam … freshman Dion Wright added two points and corralled two rebounds in nine minutes of action … Simmons went to the free-throw line a career-most 10 times.