Location: Bob Lanier Court -- Reilly Center

Box Score (PDF)  |  Statistics With Play-by-Play

St. Bonaventure Starters: #3 G Marcus Posley, #10 G Jaylen Adams, #24 , #21 F Dion Wright, #20 F Derrick Woods

The Short Story:
Offense was on display Saturday night in the Reilly Center as St. Bonaventure topped Loyola (Md.) 94-82 to improve to 2-1.

Clutch play from senior guard Marcus Posley, who had 26 points on the night, was key to the victory. Fellow senior Dion Wright also had a big game as he finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

After opening up a 16-point lead at halftime, the Bonnies needed to fight off a rally. The Greyhounds cut the lead all the way down to six points midway through the second half at 67-61.  St. Bonaventure converted baskets when they were needed most, none more critical than that juncture. Wright was fouled and made two free throws, and then Posley's three-point play pushed the lead to 72-61 with 8:14 remaining. Loyola (1-3), which made 55 percent of its shots overall including 11-21 from three-point range, did not come closer than eight points from there.

Free throws were another key to the Bonnies victory, as they converted 26 of 30 shots from the line. (86.7%)

Sophomore Jaylen Adams had 16 points, with two key three-pointers down the stretch to help seal the victory. Freshman point guard Nelson Kaputo scored 11 points and Denzel Gregg finished with nine.

How It Happened:

• Dion Wright's hook shot gave the Bonnies an early 15-11 lead.
• Wright made another tough hook shot with 8:51 left in the half to expand the lead to 26-19.
• Marcus Posley got hot later in the first half as he scored 12 straight points, including back-to-back three pointers, to give the Bonnies a 41-27 lead with 3:36 remaining.
• The Bonnies entered halftime ahead 50-34. They made six first-half three pointers, shooting 40% from beyond the arc.
• Loyola came out of the break fighting, as they cut the Bonnies' lead to 10 and forced a timeout with 12:28 left in the game. St. Bonaventure held a 62-52 lead.
• Loyola cut the deficit into single digits with 11:42 left in the game, but Marcus Posley converted a three-point play to push the lead to 65-54.
• Loyola refused to go away, and cut their deficit down to 67-61 off a pair of Andre Walker free throws with 9:28 remaining.
• Posley came through in the clutch again, drawing another foul on a drive and hitting the free throw to push the margin to 72-61.
• The Greyhounds continued to hang down the stretch, but Jarred Jones' score with 5:38 left that made it 78-69 was the last time Loyola was within single digits.
• Loyola guard Tyler Hubbard was 7-11 from three-point range in the game but was 1-4 in the second half.

Beyond the Box Score:

• Dion Wright's 22 points and 12 rebounds mark his eighth career double-double.
• Marcus Posley scored 20 points for the 12th time in his Bonnie career and the first this season. He had scored only 14 points over the first two games combined.
• Posley scored 26 points for the third time in his Bona career. That is his third highest points total in a single game. (36 at Duquesne, 29 vs Duquesne).
• St. Bonaventure reached 90 points in game for the first time since a 92-72 win over Duquesne last season on Feb. 28.
• The Bonnies' 50 points in the first half was the first time a Bona team scored 50 points in a half since a 2014 win at George Mason.

Quotes from St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt:
"Thank goodness we shot 55% from the field and 44% from the three. If we didn't, we would have lost today because our defense wasn't very good. At this level and with the teams we're about to play, we can't allow a team to shoot 52% from the field if we want to win. We have to rebound better as well as play better defense in the second half of games if we want to win."

"In the first half, we rebounded the ball and shared the ball really well, but we couldn't guard Hubbard. In the second half, we didn't do anything but shoot the ball decently … we did a better job guarding Hubbard, but the other guys started to hurt us."

 "We need Dion, Marcus, and Jay to play well. They need to be able to score the ball as well as play defense. From the offensive side of the ball they combined for 64 points and they shot efficiently today and shot a much higher percentage and that's what we need offensively."

"We need to be a team on both ends of the floor, and tonight we were a team at one end. We have to fix the defensive end of the floor."

Up Next: St. Bonaventure will make the short trip north to face its longest-running rival, Canisius, on Tuesday, Nov. 24 at the Koessler Center. Tipoff will be at 7:00.