The Saint Joseph's men's basketball teams's seven-game winning streak came to an end as St. Bonaventure's Jaylen Adams scored a career-high 31 points to lead the Bonnies to an 83-73 win at Hagan Arena. DeAndre' Bembry had 22 points, six rebounds and seven assists for Saint Joseph's (18-4; 7-2).
Adams connected on a 6-for-12 from three-range, while handing out seven assists to lead the Bonnies. Dion Wright added a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds, Idris Taqqee had 13 points and Marcus Posley scored 11 for St. Bonaventure (14-6; 6-3 A-10),
Isaiah Miles had 11 points and eight rebounds while freshman Lamarr Kimble tied his career-high with 11 points for Saint Joseph's, which has only lost twice in the last 16 games.
Trailing 42-35 at the half, Bembry scored the first four points of the half and despite picking up his third foul, made a hustle play to get a loose ball and give SJU possession. The Hawks' captain then fed Miles for a three-point play, cutting the deficit to 53-51 at 14:30.
After St. Bonaventure responded with six straight points, a pair of free throws by James Demery and a three-pointer from Miles pulled SJU within 59-56, at 10:19. The Bonnies then went on a game-clinching 19-4 run as Adams hit three three-pointers in a two-minute span to take a 78-60 lead with 3:57, to hand the Hawks one of their biggest deficits of the season.
"Credit to St. Bonaventure. I told my team that the better team won
tonight. Tomorrow we have to come back and we have to be better," said SJU coach
Phil Martelli. "They came out with two turnovers. And people will say you have to be pressing. We are what we are. Our defense has been good. And even
tonight, they shot 40 percent from the three-point line. I don't think our rotations were as aggressive. And those missed layups, they get you. They get you for more than those two points that you miss. It's a psychological blow. So we take it. We're a good team, and we weren't good enough
tonight. The better team won."
"We did not have a particularly good practice on Monday, but they were terrific yesterday. We had good crowd support. We just didn't play well enough tonight. It had nothing to do with not playing hard enough, we just didn't play well enough."
St. Bonaventure made 13-of-34 three-pointers in the game but had just two turnovers to 14 assists, while SJU had eight turnovers and connected on 8-of-25 from beyond the arc.
SJU took a quick 7-2 lead at the start, but St. Bonaventure went on a 12-0 run to take a 14-7 lead. The Hawks answered with a 9-3 run, led by five from Bembry, to regain the lead, 23-19. That would be the Hawks' last lead of the game as the teams were tied four times in the half and the Bonnies closed out the period with a 10-3 run to own the 42-35 edge at intermission.
Saint Joseph's will put the nation's best road record (7-0) to the test on Saturday when it visits Fordham at 2 p.m.
