ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team picked up its second victory of the season in dominating fashion on Wednesday evening, racing past Cornell at the Reilly Center, 88-64, led by a career night from redshirt senior Benjamin Bill.
The Bonnies (2-1) were paced by 28 points from Bill, which tied his previous career-high. The Hamburg, N.Y. native accomplished the feat efficiently on 13-for-15 shooting from the field, adding six rebounds and four blocks in 28 minutes of action.
Juniors Ari Fulton and Taj Au-Duke also finished in double figures, with Fulton posting 14 points and eight rebounds, while Au-Duke collected 10 points and sent out five assists.
The two programs went back and forth early in the first half with neither being able to grasp a solid lead.
The Bonnies jumped out to a five-point advantage before the first media timeout as the hosts' starting five generated smart looks inside, however, the Big Red (2-2) drained five of their first seven attempts from beyond the arc to help take back the lead.
Bill controlled the paint in the early going, dropping in eight points from close range in the first 10 minutes. Sophomore Ilia Ermakov then opened the floor for the Bonnies, draining the hosts' first and only three-point field goal of the night to give them a 22-21 lead with just over nine minutes left in the half.
From that moment forward, the Brown and White sprinted away with momentum, using a 29-10 scoring run to take a commanding lead into the halftime break.
During that run, the hosts bolstered defensively and halted the three-point barrage, holding Cornell to 5-for-19 shooting from the floor, including a 0-for-10 streak from outside.
Bill continued to inject the Reilly Center with energy as the half wound down, working his way inside often and turning defense into offense. He entered the locker room as Bona's leading scorer with 16 first-half points, adding a pair of blocks to his hot start.
Coming out of the halftime break with a 48-31 cushion, the hosts continued giving the home fans reasons to jump to their feet. Just over two minutes into the second stanza, Au-Duke drove around a screen from Bill and used a beautiful ball fake to draw out the Cornell defense, then threading the needle to the big man for a rim-shaking dunk.
Just before the 15:00 mark in the second half, Fulton helped stretch Bona's lead to 23 points with back-to-back buckets inside. He bumped the score to 60-37 after a confident dunk and an uncontested fast-break layup.
Energized by that success around the rim, the Bonnies went on another poised scoring streak in the following four minutes, posting 11 points to Cornell's three. Two steals from Ermakov along with a 1-for-7 shooting performance from the Big Red allowed Bona to push its lead to 29 points before the midway point of the second half.
St. Bonaventure closed out the game with a deserved confidence from nearly 20 minutes of a double-digit lead and dominance in the paint. Bill continued to prove himself as an inside force down the stretch, adding six more points and another pair of blocks to his tally in the final 10 minutes of play.
With two minutes left to play, sophomore Achille Lonati brought the Reilly Center to its feet with one final addition to the highlight reel, a fast-break dunk which put a bow on Bona's efforts and represented the energy the team had brought from the opening tipoff.
GAME NOTES
- Taj Au-Duke, Zach Philipkoski, Ilia Ermakov, Ari Fulton and Benjamin Bill filled out Bona's starting five.
- Every available Bonnie logged minutes against the Big Red, which marks the second straight game in which the team has done so.
- SBU controlled the paint all night, recording 60 points in the paint to Cornell's 28.After a back-and-forth start, Bona captured most of the momentum, holding the lead for 34:18 which accounted for 85.5 percent of the game.
- St. Bonaventure handily outrebounded Cornell, 48-28.
- SBU shot 30 free throws to Cornell's eight. The hosts made 19 of their attempts, while the visitors buried just four.
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH MIKE MACDONALD
"I think if you had told me we were going to make only one 3-pointer all game, I would say we were probably in trouble. I thought we did what we wanted to. We controlled the game with our defense, with our rebounding and we played our style. We didn't try and get caught up and try to go three for three with Cornell. They are extremely well coached."
UP NEXT
The Bonnies remain at home to host Lafayette Saturday, Nov. 14. Tipoff is set for 4:00 p.m. and is the second game of a doubleheader with the women's basketball team who squares off with Binghamton at 1:30 p.m.
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