Sophomore Julius Coles drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 5.4 seconds left on the clock to help lift the Canisius College men's basketball team to a 68-66 win over long-time rival St. Bonaventure Saturday night in the HSBC Arena. The win improves the Golden Griffins to 2-3 on the year, while the Bonnies slipped to 3-3 with the loss.
Canisius trailed 66-62 with 32 seconds left to play after junior Frank Turner hit the first of two free-throw shots. After Turner missed the second toss from the stripe, the ball went out of bounds and the Griffs retained possession. Moments later, Turner pulled up and hit a 3-pointer of his own with 24 ticks left. On the ensuing St. Bonaventure possession, the Brown and White threw the ball away in the backcourt, allowing Canisius to set up what eventually led to Coles' game-winning 3-pointer.
Turner took the ball for the Griffs and drove into the paint before kicking the ball over to Coles, who stroked his only trey of the night to put the Griffs in the lead for good. After a timeout, St. Bonaventure raced the length of the floor, but a long jump shot as the horn sounded hit the front iron and Canisius walked out of the arena with the win.
“We've talked about making a statement and this is a statement win over a really good team,” Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta said. “I told the guys before the game that a win against a long-time rival, on this stage in the arena, in front of our crowd, would send a message. We've been knocking on the door and we were able to capitalize when we got the chance.”
Five Canisius players scored in double figures in the win, led by Turner's team-high 15 points. Chris Gadley was good for 13 points and eight rebounds, while fellow frontcourt mate Greg Logins chipped in 12 points and six rebounds. Elton Frazier was good for 11 points and nine boards, while Coles ended the night with 10 points, highlighted by his game-winning shot.
“Julius has been working hard since he joined this program and I'm really happy he was able to hit that shot tonight,” Parrotta said. “He's stepped up for us at both ends of the floor. That's a shot that he's been working on in practice and I know he was confident that he'd knock it down when Frank got him the ball.”
Maurice Thomas had a game-high 22 points and 12 rebounds for St. Bonaventure in the loss with Jonathan Hall posting 11 points and nine rebounds. St. Bonaventure trailed by six at 56-50 with 7:32 left in the game but used an 8-0 run over 2:10 to take a 58-56 lead. The Bonnies held a 64-61 lead after Andrew Nicholson scored with 1:57 left and then pushed their hold to 66-61 after Da'Quan Cook hit two charity tosses with 32 remaining, setting up Canisius' comeback.
The Griffs will return to action Monday, Dec. 1, when the team travels to Howard. Tipoff in Washington, D.C., is set for 7 p.m.
Game Notes: The game between Canisius and St. Bonaventure was the 157th all-time meeting... Canisius has won four of the last six against the Bonnies... The win also improved the Blue and Gold to 26-17 all-time in the HSBC Arena and 3-2 against St. Bonaventure in the downtown arena... Saturday's two-point win by the Griffs marks the 53rd time in 157 all-time meetings that the score has been decided by five points or less... Frank Turner is averaging 12.7 points per game in three career contests in HSBC Arena.
