ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – The Bonnies caught fire early and finished strong to move to 6-0 for the first time in 51 years with an 85-70 win over Bryant Sunday afternoon at the Reilly Center.

Noel Brown led all scorers with a career-high 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting, adding seven rebounds.

Three other St. Bonaventure starters found their way to double figures as well: Melvin Council Jr. finished with 18 points, his high in a Bona uniform, while Lajae Jones chopped in 13 points and Chance Moore had 12.

It looked as though the Bonnies might run away with it early on.

After Bryant opened the game on a 7-2 spurt, the Bonnies responded with a 21-6 run of their own as they were nearly unstoppable on the offensive end.

Bona sank 11 of 12 field goal tries including five straight connections beyond the arc at one point as the hosts built a 20-point lead with just over five minutes left before the break.

Council was absolutely red hot in the opening minutes, hitting his first six field goal tries for 14 points before the game was 10 minutes old.

Bryant (3-3) turned the tide before halftime, though, with a 15-3 run to close within six at intermission.

The pendulum swung back in favor of the Bonnies immediately once the second half started, however, as Bona's recaptured some of those early vibes with a 12-2 sprint out of the locker room.

The Bulldogs attempted one more rally, closing to 73-65 with 6:39 still left to play.

Moore immediately put the comeback on ice with a drive of the lane on the next trip down the floor, finishing strong at the rim for a 10-point lead once more.

Bryant got within single digits only one more time, a free throw with 5:57 to go brought the spread to nine, but Moore answered again with a fastbreak layup and the Bulldogs never pulled closer.

Bona's defense locked in during the second half – after Bryant shot over 48 percent overall in the first 20 minutes, they mustered just 33 percent after intermission. Former Bonnie Barry Evans scored 12 points in the first half, but had only two in the second half.

Earl Timberlake led the way for the Bulldogs with 17 points and seven rebounds.

GAME NOTES

• St. Bonaventure has its first 6-0 start to a season since the 1973-74 campaign.
• Bona led for 36:51 of game time and has led for over 35 minutes in five of six games thus far.
• Council Jr. and Brown set the tone in the first half, combining for 26 points on 11-for-13 shooting. Brown entered the locker room perfect from the field and Council Jr. did not miss a shot until the 1:08 mark in the first half after sinking his first six tries. 
• The Bulldogs won the battle of the boards 34-29, though the Bonnies were able to control the paint in their own way, scoring 46 paint points to Bryant's 38. 
• Brown's previous career-best scoring game of 18 points came last season at Fordham (2/14/24). He added seven rebounds and ended the day with the highest +/- of any Bonaventure player at +20. 
• Council Jr. tallied a season-best in scoring. His previous high with the Bonnies came in a 17-point effort at Canisius.
• The Bonaventure starting five scored all but 12 of the teams points, with only Jonah Hinton (9) and Duane Thompson (3) scoring off the bench. 
• The Bonnies shot 57.1 percent from three-point range as opposed to the Bulldogs' 36.8%. 

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MARK SCHMIDT
(on Noel Brown) "He's playing well. Noel has to do that physical stuff. He was never the go-to guy at GW and he was never the go-to guy last year, but he's learning that role and he's embracing it and getting better."

"We have to continue to improve. We can't be satisfied being 6-0. We've got a long way to go. We can't listen to the noise; people talking about how we're 6-0 and this and that. We have to prepare for the next game."

"We shot the ball 8-for-14 from three that's a good percentage. We could probably take a few more of those, but sometimes you don't want to get into the mid-twenties (in three-point attempts). Eight-for-14 and shooting 57%, I'd take that for the rest of the year if we could do that. There aren't enough games to look at and say if we're going to be a good or bad three-point shooting team."

"Everybody has to be engaged. They have to be committed. I thought we were at the beginning of the game. I thought we took a little be of a step back in the end of the first half, but I thought we gathered ourselves and Lajae was a part of that."

(on playing in the ESPN NIT Tip-Off this week) "It's a great mid-major tournament. Utah State just beat Iowa. They average well into the 90s. They can really score, and Northern Iowa, we've played them twice already in the last three years and know what a good program they are. North Texas is another high mid-major program. It's a high mid-major tournament. We're worried about the first game, and we'll work tonight to get ready for the first game, but this will be a great opportunity for our team to play some high-quality opponents."

UP NEXT
The Bonnies will make their second trip to the Sunshine State in the past two weeks as they head to Orlando for the ESPN NIT Tip-Off for a pair of games over Thanksgiving. First up is a date with Utah State Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.

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