RICHMOND, Va. – VCU started strong and never allowed a short-handed St. Bonaventure squad to gather much traction in its rally effort as the Bonnies fell, 74-51, Tuesday night at the Siegel Center.

The Bonnies saw their seven-game winning streak snapped and now stand at 19-8 overall including an 11-5 mark in A-10 play while VCU improves to 21-7, 14-3.

St. Bonaventure, playing without center Osun Osunniyi who missed the game due to ankle injury and battling a stomach bug that had gone through the team in recent days, came out sluggish.

VCU used an 11-0 run in the early minutes to build a 21-6 advantage.

The Bonnies started to gain their footing as the half wound down, making five of their final six field goal tries to pull within 40-27 at halftime.

Abdoul Karim Coulibaly, starting in place of Osunniyi at the 5-spot, battled foul trouble and picked up his fourth foul less than two minutes into the second half.

Still, the Bonnies closed the gap to 51-36 with 14 minutes to play.

Unfortunately for the Brown and White, they would get no closer.

St. Bonaventure shot 33 percent from the floor while VCU finished at a 51 percent clip. The Rams took advantage of Osunniyi's absence, winning the rebounds battle 44-29 and points in the paint 44-30.

Jalen Adaway scored 12 points and seven rebounds while Dominick Welch and Jaren Holmes each had 10 points with Welch finishing with seven boards.

GAME NOTES

• Freshman Oluwasegun Durosinmi saw heavy minutes off the bench. His previous career-high of three minutes was easily surpassed as he played 22 minutes Tuesday night. He posted two points, five rebounds and two blocks.
• VCU forced Bona's into 17 turnovers, seven above their season average. SBU still won the turnover battle, though, after turning over the Rams 20 times.
• Bona is 60-18 when having Osunniyi, Welch and Kyle Lofton available for an entire game since Feb. 12, 2019.
• The Bonnies had been +226 in paint points this year prior to Tuesday's game.
• Bona is now 4-6 when losing the battle of the boards.
• Three of the A-10's top-four seeds in the upcoming conference tournament are set as Davidson, Dayton and VCU have now secured double-byes. The Bonnies continue to control their own destiny when it comes to locking up the four-seed following Richmond's loss to Dayton Tuesday night. Bona and Saint Louis are in contention for the final double-bye spot, with the Billikens currently at 10-6 and will finish with a game at Rhode Island Wednesday before hosting VCU Saturday. 

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MARK SCHMIDT
"We had some illness, but we don't make excuses. We didn't play well. I thought our effort was decent, we just missed a lot of layups and had opportunities early that we didn't cash in on. We made a run early in the second half and had a chance to cut it to single digits with a couple of layups and weren't able to do that."

"They attack downhill and we really didn't have a shot-blocker to stop them inside. I thought Duro did OK, but he's a freshman and freshmen will make mistakes. Give VCU credit, they played good and we didn't play well."

"Now it's time to regroup and we need to win on Friday night. We have to play well and have momentum going into the tournament. Friday is a big game, it's Senior Day and we want to bounce back."

UP NEXT
St. Bonaventure returns home to host Richmond Friday night at the Reilly Center for what figures to be a special night as the Bonnies honor their senior class. The game will air live on ESPN2.

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