ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team got back on track in emphatic fashion, leading wire-to-wire in a 75-53 victory over Dayton Tuesday night at the Reilly Center.

The win was also the 400^th in the coaching career of head coach Mark Schmidt.

St. Bonaventure (16-6, 4-5 Atlantic 10) led by seven at halftime and then dominated the second half by holding the Flyers to under 35 percent shooting from the floor while connecting on 54 percent of their own attempts.

Lajae Jones drained a career-high six threes on the way to a game-high 23 points, adding seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.

Melvin Council Jr. filled the stat sheet with 18 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

The Bonnies came out of the gates hot, led by prolific 3-point shooting from Jones.

Jones tallied 12 of Bona's first 19 points and had drained five treys before the game was 10 minutes old.

A 14-3 run launched the Bonnies to a 24-13 advantage and their lead would swell to 13 at one point during the half before the hosts settled for a 39-32 lead at the break.

St. Bonaventure played a lights out first half last Friday night at first-place VCU as well before the Rams turned the tables after intermission.

There would be no such woes on this night, however, as the Bonnies used a 16-1 sprint early in the second half to pull ahead by 26 at one point. During the run, the Bonnies connected on 6-of-11 tries from the floor while Dayton went 0-for-8.

From there, the Flyers never got any closer.

Bona only had six turnovers on the night and did not allow a single fast break point from the Flyers.

The Bonnies won nearly every statistical category, leading on the boards (36-27), in the paint (28-26), from deep (12-25 vs. 8-24) and at the foul stripe (9-12 vs. 3-7).

Nate Santos finished with 12 points and seven boards for Dayton (14-7, 4-4).


GAME NOTES

• St. Bonaventure improves to 12-29 all-time against Dayton, with the 22-point win standing as the largest margin of victory for the Bonnies over the Flyers in series history.
• The win marks Schmidt's 318th win on the Bonnies sidelines. He had 82 wins at Robert Morris from 2001-07.
• Bonaventure held control throughout the whole contest, leading for 35:23 of game time.
• The Bonnies surpassed their season average of just over six made threes per game early on, nailing seven shots from deep in just the first 13 minutes. 
• Jones' 6-for-10 performance from deep marks the first time a Bonaventure player has tallied six or more three-pointers in a single game since Assa Essamvous drained seven against Fordham last February. 
• Council finished with seven assists, his fifth time compiling six or more helpers in a single game this season. 
• Noah Bolanga tallied a career-high nine points off the bench.
• Bona held the Flyers both their lowest single-game point total (53) and largest margin of defeat (22) of the season. 
• SBU set a new season single-game high with 12 made three-pointers. 

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MARK SCHMIDT
"It's all about the players. The 400 wins, it's all about the players. I can put guys in situations, but they have to do the job. As I told the team, it's 400 wins, but it's a lot of losses too. It's a credit to the administration from when I first got here all the way through, to my assistants to the players."

"Melvin has it, whatever that it is. He plays with that joy and that's why he's good. The Lord blessed him with gifts to play the game, but he plays with joy and that's how you score some points."

"We had open looks; we didn't force many threes. We have good shooters and they were able to knock down shots tonight. We were driving and kicking and getting open looks and able to knock them down."

UP NEXT
The Bonnies remain at home to host Fordham Saturday afternoon. Tip time is slated for 12:30 p.m. on USA Network.

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