RICHMOND, Va. – St. Bonaventure controlled much of the first half, but VCU flipped the script with a dominant second half as the Rams pulled away for an 75-61 victory Friday night at the Siegel Center.

The Bonnies led by eight at the break before VCU exploded for a 50-28 second half.

VCU started just 3-from-15 from the floor to start the game and the Bonnies established dominance inside early with 12 of their first 15 points coming in the paint, following up on 48 paint points in the first meeting last month.

The Rams got the crowd back into the game with an 8-0 run to cut within a point, but the Bonnies tallied the last six points of the half to run to the locker room with a 33-25 advantage – all coming without a point from leading scorer Melvin Council Jr.

Bona put home the first bucket of the second half for their largest lead of the game at 10 points, but the Rams responded with a 10-0 sprint to tie it up just over two minutes later.

The teams shared a 40-40 tie as well before another 8-0 break by the Rams.

St. Bonaventure (15-6, 3-5 A-10) mustered only nine shot attempts in the first 10 minutes of the second half as VCU's pressure defense caused a multitude of problems for the Bonnies.

After halftime, the Rams shot a scorching 61 percent (16-26) overall and went 8-for-13 from distance.

Chance Moore returned to the lineup after missing Tuesday's game due to injury and played all but one minute, finishing with 21 points and eight rebounds.

Jonah Hinton recorded 12 points while both Council and Noel Brown checked in with 10 each.

Joe Bamisile drained 18 points and Phillip Russell posted 16 for VCU (16-4, 6-1 A-10).

GAME NOTES

• St. Bonaventure outrebounded VCU by a 38-30 margin and led by 10 points in the paint (38-28). The Bonnies led for over 22 minutes of game time.
• Friday's game snapped a four-game winning streak for the Bonnies vs. VCU.
• Moore tallied his scoring high in an Atlantic 10 game this season.
• Brown tallied his second career double-double with his first coming last Saturday at Duquesne.  

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MARK SCHMIDT
"They're a really good team. We turned the ball over too many times in the second half. We did a really good job in the first half defensively, got up 10 and the game plan was working, but they went after us. The whole key here is you know they're going to make a run and you've got to answer it. When a team shoots 61 percent in the second half, you're not going to beat anybody."

"We had our chances even though we weren't defending great, but they made some big shots and the crowd got into it. We couldn't have played better defensively in the first half, and we outrebounded them by 17 at halftime. But in the second half they turned the tables on us and we couldn't recover. We couldn't keep it in the halfcourt, we had some soft turnovers and gave up fastbreak points."

UP NEXT
St. Bonaventure hosts Dayton Tuesday night in the Reilly Center. Tip time is slated for 8 p.m. and tickets are available by clicking here.

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