PHOTO COURTESY OF GOBONNIES
BY JONNY WALKER, ADVISORY EDITOR
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team plays the second of its two-game home stand Tuesday night, hosting a rematch with Virginia Commonwealth in the Reilly Center.
The Bonnies (12-7, 3-4 A-10) opened their Atlantic 10 Conference schedule with an 89-78 win over the Rams (13-7, 5-2 A-10) in Richmond nearly one month ago. Since then, VCU has won five of its last six, climbing up to fourth in the A-10 standings. Bona, with a 17-point win over Saint Joseph’s Friday, moved into a five-way tie for seventh.
In the first meeting, Bona forward Chad Venning led all scorers with 19 points on 8-14 shooting. He added a game-high 11 rebounds in his 33 minutes.
“Anytime you have a good big guy, it helps your offense,” said Bona head coach Mark Schmidt during his Monday media availability. “When Chad is playing well, he’s an effective player for us. And he played well down there, and hopefully he can play well again tomorrow.”
Last time, Bona also won what Schmidt described as the “3-point shooting contest.” Bona shot 12-22, or 54.5%, from beyond the arc while limiting the Rams to eight made 3-pointers. However, VCU has climbed to third in opponent 3-point field goal percentage (0.289) among A-10 teams in conference play. VCU also now leads all A-10 teams in 3-point shooting (0.422) in conference play.
“They’re defending better, and they’re shooting the ball from three better,” said Schmidt. “When you do those two things, you have a chance.”
Bona enters Tuesday coming off of one of its best perimeter-shooting displays of the season. En route to scoring 91 points against Saint Joseph’s, the Bonnies made 12 3-pointers. Two of their guards, team captains Daryl Banks III and Moses Flowers, combined for 52 points.
Bona opened its conference schedule with four of six games on the road, losing four during that stretch. Friday not only represents back-to-back home games for Bona, but the beginning of a four-game stretch that features three home contests. This season, Bona is 7-2 in the Reilly Center and 5-5 anywhere else.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and will air live on CBS Sports Network.
walkerjc20@bonaventure.edu
