WASHINGTON, D.C. – Top-seeded VCU put down a second half rally effort from eighth-seeded St. Bonaventure as the Rams scored a 76-59 victory in Friday's Atlantic 10 Second Round from Capital One Arena.

Melvin Council Jr., a day after his heroics in a comeback win over Duquesne, recorded 19 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Fellow senior Chance Moore also delivered 19 points along with eight rebounds while junior Lajae Jones finished with a double-double of 10 points, 10 boards.

VCU's defense caused trouble from the outset and while Bonaventure's turnover total wasn't large – 13 – the turnovers caused by the Rams nearly always led to offense, resulting in 21 points for the No. 1 seed.

St. Bonaventure (22-11) never found much rhythm offensively, shooting 36 percent for the game and 4-for-19 from distance.

Even where the Bonnies have shined all season long, the Rams took control.

In the paint, the Bonnies were outscored for just the fourth time this season – by double figures, no less: 38-26.

Bona silenced the scoring efforts of A-10 Player of the Year Max Shulga as he scored just two points on 1-of-9 shooting from the floor including 0-for-7 from distance. Shulga found other ways to impact the game, though, leading all players with 11 assists.

VCU (26-6) started to take control with a 7-0 run late in the first half, pushing its lead to double digits for the first time to take a 10-point edge into intermission.

Bona turnovers leading to fastbreak offense for the Rams were devastating early in the upset bid as VCU recorded 15 points off turnovers during the first half alone.

The Rams extended their lead to 13 in the early minutes out of the locker room to begin the second half, but just like a day earlier, the Bonnies began to battle back.

Bonaventure held the Rams off the scoreboard for over four and a half minutes while employing an 8-0 run to pull within 43-38.

VCU finally snapped its drought on a three-pointer from Brandon Jennings with 13:36 to play and by the time the teams hit the under-12 media timeout, VCU's lead was back to 10.

Back within six at 51-45 and still 9:22 to play, Jack Clark started another 7-0 Rams run with a triple, effectively icing the rally effort.

Clark tallied 17 points for the Rams while Zeb Jackson (14 points) and Jennings (12) each had double figures off the bench.

The Bonnies complete their season with 22 wins, thanks in large part to their veteran leadership.

"My second year as a Bonnie and my last year. I can't even say anything better about it," grad captain Noel Brown said. "I think it's honestly one of the best places on earth. Excuse me, I may get a little bit emotional. But we really do care about that place and other people care about me as well and I can feel it, like the rest of the team. It's a one-of-a-experience and I'm glad I got to have it, honestly."
 
GAME NOTES

• Bona's 22 wins are the most for the program since 2022.
• VCU led on the glass, 40-36.
• Council played the full 40 minutes and saw time in over 93 percent of possible minutes for the season. Already depleted by injuries, the Bonnies had just seven healthy scholarship players available for Friday's game as redshirt freshman Duane Thompson was also out due to injury.
• Miles Rose played seven minutes off the bench with two points.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MARK SCHMIDT
"Give credit to VCU. They played extremely well. They took us out of stuff offensively. In the two games that we played against them, one win, one loss, we had more points in the paint when we beat them at our place. We had more fast-break points, we had more points off turnovers. Down there, they reversed it and today was the same story. You can't beat a team like VCU with the athletes that they have when you get outscored 21 to 6 points off turnovers. And then we lost in the paint, and that's usually our strength. We lost in the paint by 12. So if you're going to lose the three-point game, which we've lost a lot this year, our strength was getting the ball to the paint by the dribble or the pass. We struggled in that area. I thought in the second half, we did a much better job of rebounding the ball, second-chance points, fast-break points. But every time we had a chance -- and I think we cut it to three or four and we had a shot in the corner, an open three, we missed it. They went down and hit a three. I thought [Brandon] Jennings was a big difference in the game. Then I thought we had some opportunities. We had a missed layup. Every time we missed, they went down and made us pay for it. So really good team. There's a reason why they were co-champs."

"The season was up and down. We started off really well. Then we hit a tough spot and we lost three or four in a row. If you don't have good leadership, you can splinter. Give our guys, all of our guys, but especially these two guys (Melvin Council Jr. and Noel Brown) that -- I always say what I say in the locker room is really, really important, but what is said when I leave the locker room is most important. When you have good leadership, what is said in the locker room is accurate, it's positive. So we were lucky to have these two guys as captains. One of the reasons why we had the success that we had this year."

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