PHILADELPHIA – The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team dropped the first leg of its Philadelphia trip to Saint Joseph's, 68-64, on Wednesday night (Jan. 14) at Michael J. Hagan Arena. 
 
Frank Mitchell led the way for the Bonnies (11-6, 0-4 A-10) with 22 points – 20 of which came in the first half – and eight rebounds. Cayden Charles and Buddy Simmons II rounded out the double-figure scorers for St. Bonaventure, with 17 and 14 points, respectively. 
 
FIRST HALF
Saint Joseph's (11-7, 3-2 A-10) opened the scoring with six consecutive points, which St. Bonaventure answered with a three from Simmons II and a layup by Dasonte Bowen, bringing the Bonnies within one with 16:32. 
 
Over the next 13:51, Mitchell scored 18 straight points for the Bonnies. Mitchell alone could not keep pace with the Hawks, as by the time Daniel Egbuniwe made a pair of free throws with 2:41 left in the half, St. Bonaventure trailed, 30-25. 
 
Mitchell added a dunk for good measure to bring his first-half total to 20 points with four seconds before the break, however the Bonnies still trailed, 35-28.
 
SECOND HALF
Saint Joseph's pushed its lead to a game-high-tying 11 points out of the break. The Bonnies answered with a 7-0 run kickstarted by a triple from Charles. 
 
The Hawks broke up the run with a free throw, but the Bonnies held St. Joe's scoreless over the next three-plus minutes. The defensive crackdown opened the door for St. Bonaventure to take its first lead of the game behind back-to-back Charles three-pointers. The 13-1 stretch game SBU a 43-42 advantage with 12:51 to play.
 
Five unanswered points from St. Joe's put the Bonnies down four. St. Bonaventure was not done with its scoring surge, however, as the Bonnies went on another 11-0 run over the next three minutes, taking their largest lead of the game at 54-47. Simmons II scored nine of SBU's 11 points during the run.
 
Over the last 8:29, the Hawks outscored St. Bonaventure 21-10. St. Joe's Jaiden Glover-Toscano scored 11 of the team's 21 points to close the game, and his go-ahead and-one layup with 33 seconds remaining sealed the 68-64 result. 
 
UP NEXT
The Bonnies will remain in Philadelphia to face La Salle on Saturday (Jan. 17) at John E. Glaser Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m., and the game will be televised live on USA Network.
 
NOTES:

• Dasonte Bowen, the Atlantic 10 leader in assist-turnover ratio, finished the game with eight assists and just one turnover. He added eight points, six rebounds and two steals.
• Buddy Simmons II has played all 40 minutes in all four of St. Bonaventure's Atlantic 10 games.
• Joe Grahovac posted a career-best-tying four blocks off the bench. He leads St. Bonaventure with 32 blocks on the season.
• Cayden Charles' three three-point field goals tied a career-best and were his most at the Division I level.