Photo courtesy of gobonnies.com
BY: WILL NUNN; CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, SPORTS EDITOR
Despite the game being postponed by a day due to the snow storm that ravaged the Northeast, the Reilly Center crowd made its presence known in the St. Bonaventure University men’s basketball team’s 94-76 win over Rhode Island University Thursday.
The Bonaventure faithful does not forget, and certainly has not forgiven. Rhode Island redshirt junior guard Jonah Hinton, a member of the Bonnies last season, was booed every time he touched the ball by the student section, and struggled from the field, scoring just five points on 2-of-10 shooting and just 1-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Graduate guard Tyler Cochran led the way for the Rams (15-13, 6-9 A-10) with 21 points and made five of his six attempts from downtown.
The Bonnies (15-13, 4-11 A-10) snapped their three-game skid thanks to a balanced scoring output which was spearheaded by senior forward Frank Mitchell, who recorded his 16th double-double of the season–and fourth in a row–with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Senior guard Cayden Charles added 21 points, 10 rebounds and four steals, junior guard Darryl Simmons II poured in 17 points and redshirt junior guard Dasonte Bowen tallied 14 points and a game-high seven assists.
Rhode Island captured its only lead of the evening at 21-20 when Cochran knocked down a 3-pointer, but a subsequent 10-0 Bonaventure run, capped off by a slam by sophomore forward Joe Grahovac, placed all of the momentum squarely in the Bonnies’ hands.
The Bonnies led by as many as 11 points in the first half, and went into the halftime break with a 39-30 lead.
The second half was more of the same, as the Bonnies extended their lead to 15 just over six minutes into the half. The lead ballooned to as many as 21 late in the half as Bonaventure rolled to its fourth conference win, and the student section’s not-so-warm reception for Hinton lasted until the final buzzer sounded.
The Bonnies hit the road to face George Mason University in their next contest on Saturday Feb. 28. The game is scheduled to tip off at 2 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and the Bonnies Online Network.
