OLEAN, N.Y. — In a game of runs, St. Bonaventure used a seven-point run late in the game to build a 12-point lead and hang on as the Canisius College men's basketball team lost 82-75 in the Reilly Center on Wednesday night. Canisius falls to 6-7 on the season.
Senior Frank Turner had his sixth career double-double with 15 points and 10 assists to go along with seven rebounds. Turner now has 501 career assists, becoming the third player in program history to have 500 career assists. Junior Julius Coles led all players with 22 points while junior Greg Logins had 14 points and six boards.
St. Bonaventure (7-5) jumped out to a 20-12 lead at 13:30, but Canisius would take control of the first half with a 14-4 run, holding the Bonnies without a field goal for nearly 11 minutes. Freshman Alshwan Hymes had six points and Coles added five points during the run that was capped by a layup from Logins to make it 26-24 with 3:36 left in the half. The Bonnies closed the half on an 11-3 run to take a 35-29 halftime lead on a breakaway dunk from Jonathan Hall in the closing seconds of the half.
Canisius came out hot to start the second half, opening the half with a 25-11 run in the first seven minutes of the half to build a 54-46 lead, its biggest advantage on the evening. The Griffs missed their opening two shots of the half and then made nine straight, including a number of uncontested, breakaway baskets. Turner had seven points during the run while Coles and junior Robert Goldsberry added five points.
The Bonnies answered with a 14-5 run, to take a 60-59 lead on a layup from Michael Davenport with 8:42 remaining. St. Bonaventure built a five-point lead and then broke open the game by scoring seven points in a span of 75 seconds – getting a jumper from Andrew Nicholson, dunk from Hall and 3-ponter from Ogo Adegboye to build a 77-65 advantage.
Canisius wouldn't go away, taking advantage of free-throw misses from the Bonnies, scoring seven straight points to make it 77-72 on a layup from Coles with 58 seconds remaining. After two free throw makes from Adegboye, Logins nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to cut it to 79-75. The Bonnies made two more free throws and the Griffs missed their next two shots to end the comeback attempt.
"It was back-and-forth the whole way and I was once again impressed with the fact that there is no quit in this team," Canisius head coach Tom Parrotta said. "We battled back to take the lead, but their offensive rebounds and second-chance points wore us down and proved to be the difference in a very good, hard-fought rivalry game. We've taken a lot of positives out of a very tough non-conference schedule and, as we planned, we expect it to have us ready for the rigors of our MAAC schedule the rest of the way out."
Five St. Bonaventure players had double figures, led by 20 points, seven rebounds, six assists, three blocks and two steals from Hall in 38 minutes. Chris Matthews had 15 points, going 4-for-12 from behind the arc. Nicholson had 14 points, seven rebounds and four blocks while Michael Davenport and Adegboye each had 12 points.
Canisius resumes conference play on Saturday, playing the second game of a MAAC doubleheader at the HSBC Arena. Canisius plays Fairfield, with game time set for 4:30 p.m.
Game Notes: Canisius and St. Bonaventure met for the 158th time, the most meetings of any non-conference opponent for the Griffs... Canisius lost for just the sixth time in the last 16 meetings with the Bonnies... Canisius had a season-low five free-throw attempts, the fewest since attempting four against Siena in the MAAC Tournament last season... Turner had his second double-double of the season, with his other double-double coming in the win at Buffalo on Nov. 24, when he had 17 points and 10 rebounds... Turner is the 14th player in MAAC men's basketball history with 500 career assists.
