100th Win At St. Bonaventure For Coach Mark Schmidt

Final Score: St. Bonaventure 66 , La Salle 51

Location: Bob Lanier Court at the Reilly Center – St. Bonaventure, N.Y.

Records: St. Bonaventure 12-7 (2-3 A-10)  |  La Salle 11-7 (3-1)

Box Score (PDF) | Final Stats and Play-by-Play | Social Media Recap

The Short Story: St. Bonaventure played what Coach Mark Schmidt called its best game of the season and handed La Salle its first A-10 loss, 66-51, on Wednesday night in the Reilly Center.  The Bonnies held the Explorers to just 30 percent shooting (15-50) including 8-30 in the second half, allowing the Brown and White to pull away and snap their three-game losing streak.

Charlon Kloof led the way on both ends of the floor as he scored 18 points, handed out seven assists and grabbed six rebounds with three steals. Matthew Wright and Marquise Simmons scored 10 points apiece, while Youssou Ndoye scored seven points and blocked four shots.

St. Bonaventure Starters: #3 G Charlon Kloof, #23 G Andell Cumberbatch, #24 Matthew Wright, #33 F Marquise Simmons, #35 C Youssou Ndoye

How It Happened:

• La Salle took a 19-11 lead early. Shaking off the sluggish start, the Bonnnies responded with a 9-0 run. Marquise Simmons laid in an easy bucket to get the score to 19-15. Matthew Wright stole the ball on the ensuing possession, leading to a Charlon Kloof fast break layup and La Salle timeout with 7:34 left.
• Following the timeout, Andell Cumberbatch scored and was fouled to tie the score at 19 with 7:03 remaining. He converted the free throw to give the Bonnies a 20-19 lead.
• Part of the reason for the resurgence was a switch to zone defense which ignited a 15-4 run, giving the Bonnies a 26-23 lead with 3:30 left in the half.
• The Bonnies entered intermission with a 30-27 lead.
• Simmons opened the second half with a mid range jumper to give the Bonnies a 32-27 advantage, but the Explorers would respond with back-to-back three-pointers by Tyreek Duren to make it a 33-32 game.
• Matthew Wright hit the first three-pointer of the game with 16:59 left, giving the Bonnies a 37-34 lead.
• Youssou Ndoye scored on back-to-back possessions to give the Bonnies a 43-39 edge.
• Dion Wright laid in a bucket off a Matthew Wright pass at the 13:10 mark that made the score 47-41.
• Andell Cumberbatch drilled a baseline three-pointer to push the Bonnies' lead to 51-43 with 11:32 remaining in the game.
• La Salle's Tyrone Garland made a free throw with 9:12 left, but Jordan Gathers answered with a jump shot to make the score 57-48 Bonnies.
• Garland's free throw turned out to be the last points La Salle would score until the game was nearly over.
• From the 9:50 mark when Jerrell Wright's dunk made it 55-47, the Bonnies' swarming defense held the Explorers without a field goal until a meaningless layup with 12 seconds left. Over that span, the Bonnies outscored the Explorers 11-4 as La Salle missed 14 of its last 15 shots and committed three turnovers.
• The Bonnies committed only four turnovers in the second half after giving the ball away nine times in the first half.
• St. Bonaventure scored 21 points off of 17 La Salle turnovers, while limiting the Explorers to just five points off 13 Bona turnovers.
• The Bonnies went 23-52 (.442) from the field and 18-24 at the free throw line. They also outrebounded La Salle 36-32 led by Dion Wright with nine boards.

Beyond the Box Score:

• Mark Schmidt is now 100-102 in his seventh season as head coach at St. Bonaventure. He is only the sixth coach in school history to reach the milestone, joining Larry Weise (202), Jim Satalin (156), Eddie Donovan (139), Mike Reilly (133) and Jim Baron (132).
• The 51 points scored by La Salle is the third-lowest total allowed by the Bonnies this season after 46 by South Dakota and 47 by Abilene Christian.
• La Salle had won five in a row prior to Wednesday's game.
• Kloof's 18 points were the most he's scored in his career against an A-10 opponent; his prior best was 15 at UMass on Jan. 11.
• The Bonnies outscored La Salle 36-20 in the paint.
• Ndoye continued his strong play of late; he now has 15 blocks in the Bonnies' five A-10 games.

Quotes from St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt:

• "That was the best we've played all year. That's a game that we finished. We played for 40 minutes. We defended, we rebounded, and we took care of the basketball."
• "To be able to hold a team like that to 51 points is a credit to our guys. That was the best that we could play defensively."
• "It was a team effort – the guys came together and stopped a really good offensive team."
• "It (His 100^th win) just means I've been here a long time. I haven't won a game. It also means we have some good players. You're only as good as your players, - and we've had some good players - so that's why we've had some success."

Up Next: St. Bonaventure will travel to Duquesne this Saturday, Jan. 25. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Palumbo Center and the game will air on SNY.

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