ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – Jalen Adaway drilled a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds remaining to break a tie and send St. Bonaventure to a 68-65 victory over Buffalo Saturday afternoon in a classic Big 4 battle inside the Reilly Center.

The fifth-year senior calmly knocked down an open look off a feed from Jaren Holmes who drew a double team from UB defenders by driving into the paint.

Adaway's trey threw ice on what was a 13-2 Buffalo run over 2:38 to stun The RC crowd.

Maceo Jack's three with 29 seconds left completed a furious Buffalo rally, erasing Bona's 63-52 lead with 3:05 to go.

It was the only time during the second half the Bonnies did not have a lead. Following Jack's tying shot, a Bonnies timeout set up the final dramatics.

Adaway finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, adding two blocks. Osun Osunniyi posted 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocks while Linton Brown produced 10 points off the bench.

For just the third time this season the Bonnies took a lead to intermission with a strong first 20 minutes, their first without senior Kyle Lofton, who missed the game due to injury, since 2018.

Buffalo (4-3) opened 1-for-9 from the floor as the teams shared a frenetic pace, but posted little scoring in the early going. The Big 4 rivals exchanged the lead multiple times before the break, but the Bonnies would lead, 35-29, behind a pair of treys from Linton Brown and a dunk from Abdoul Karim Coulibaly.

St. Bonaventure (7-1) kept its momentum as the second half began, taking 44-33 cushion following a long ball from Dominick Welch and an emphatic dunk by Quadry Adams as an array of Bonnies took turns making impactful plays.

As expected, the Bulls would make things interesting down the stretch, cutting into what was a 13-point advantage for the hosts.

Buffalo employed a 10-2 run to draw back within four, but a put-back from Osunniyi with just over five minutes left started a run where the Bonnies would expand the lead back to double figures. The sellout Reilly Center crowd was at its loudest, prior to the ending anyway, following a 3-pointer from Welch for a 64-52 score with 3:04 remaining.

The final act was one to remember with Buffalo roaring back before Adaway's heroics.

Jeenathan Williams led all scorers with 23 points for the Bulls while Ronaldo Segu added 13 points, six boards and four assists.

GAME NOTES

• The Bonnies played their first game without Lofton (ankle) since the 2018 NCAA Tournament game vs. Florida. The senior point guard had started all 93 games the Bonnies have played since prior to Saturday - a span of 1,360 days.
• Redshirt freshman Quadry Adams earned his first career start.
• St. Bonaventure shot 42 percent for the game while Buffalo finished at a 40 percent clip. The Bonnies won the battle of the boards, 42-34.
• Linton Brown tallied his career high in scoring, going 3-for-5 from the floor in just under 20 minutes off the bench.
• Adaway has posted his first career back-to-back double-double efforts, following a career-high 16 rebounds in Wednesday's win.
• St. Bonaventure improved to 11-4 all-time against Buffalo, snapping the Bulls' only winning streak in series history. The Bulls had won the last two meetings in 2018 and 2019.
• Holmes, moving into the point guard role for much of the day in Lofton's absence, handed out a career-high eight assists while playing the full 40 minutes. His previous best was six, set three times including this past Wednesday.
• Welch also played the full 40, finishing with eight points and nine rebounds.
• St. Bonaventure swatted a season-high nine shots.
• UB entered the day averaging 85 points per game. 

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MARK SCHMIDT
"What a great college game. We played downhill very well and aggressive all game. We did a good job of keeping them in the half court and taking care of the ball down the stretch."

"Linton played really well for us off the bench and got some buckets for us. Quadry and Karim came in and played their role."

"Jalen hit the big shot at the end and had a double-double for us, and as an offense we made the tough plays when we needed to. To execute that play and hit that shot at the end was important. He earned that shot. He is always in the gym working and put himself in a position to make a play like that."

"This gives me a lot of confidence to see Quadry, Karim, and Linton play well and have success, but there's still a lot to work on."

"We have tough guys mentally and we played hard today. Everybody has to step up their game and get better with Kyle out."

UP NEXT
The Bonnies complete their four-game home stand by hosting Loyola (MD) Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

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