Thursday, March 14, 2024 4:00 p.m.
Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Ramblers arrive in Brooklyn for their second ever A-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament as the #2 seed, which allows them to watch teams battle it out for the right to play Loyola on Thursday.
On Wednesday afternoon, the LaSalle Explorers—coming off a stress, come-from-behind 61-60 win over George Washington on Tuesday—came out on the losing end of another impossibly close game to St. Bonaventure, 75-73. St. Bonaventure and La Salle traded leads throughout the last third of the game, and when a put-back dunk to force overtime sailed over the rim at the buzzer, the Bonnies earned the right to move on.
St. Bonaventure beat Loyola 79-64 in Olean on Feb. 27, and looked to challenge UMass and VCU for the last double bye in the A-10 Tournament. But the Bonnies lost their next two games against George Washington and Saint Louis (the bottom two teams in the league) to finish as the 7th seed. Their performance on Wednesday against La Salle on a neutral court was just barely good enough to eke out a stressful win, with three Bonnies starters playing 30 minutes or more.
On Thursday, the Bonnies are likely to start 6’3” senior guard Mika Adams-Woods, 6’3” senior guard Moses Flowers, 6’4” senior guard Charles Pride, 6’6” sophomore forward Assa Essamvous, and 6’10” redshirt junior center Chad Venning. Adams-Woods is transfer from Cincinnati who runs the point and averages 13.3 points, 3.7 assists. Adams-Woods leads the team in three-point shooting at 46.4% and is one of three Bonnies that shoots over 80% at the line. Pride, a Bryant grad transfer, averages 11.6 points, leads the team in rebounding at 6.1 per game, and leads the team in steals at 1.2 per contest. Flowers averages 9.5 points, and is tied for the team lead in made threes with Adams-Woods. Essamvous averages 7.4 points and 5.3 rebounds.
Chad Venning, is the Bonnies' leading scorer at 13.9 ppg. He's listed at 6'10", 255, but last year he was listed at 270 after transferring from Morgan State, where he was listed at 295. When Venning scores more than his average, SBU is 10-3. Playing back-to-back games might be a factor—Venning averages 24 minutes per game and played 21 on Wednesday.
On the bench the Bonnies feature 6’3” senior guard Daryl Banks, 6’11” junior center Noel Brown, 6’8” sophomore forward Barry Evans, and 5’10” junior point guard Kyrell Luc. Banks has been in and out of the starting lineup; he averages 8.3 points, 2.6 assists, and 1.9 rebounds and scored 26 points against Loyola Feb. 27. Brown gives Venning recovery time on the bench and plays about 13 minutes per game; he shoots 72% from the field while averaging 6.0 points and 2.2 rebounds. Evans averages 3.3 points per game, and is a good rebounder. Last year’s starting point guard Kyrell Luc has fallen way off in minutes, but still contributes 2.4 ppg.
In the game on Feb. 27 in Olean, Loyola led 9-2 early, but the wheels came off midway through the first half. The Ramblers committed 19 turnovers, many of them on lazy passes where Bonnies players were staking out the passing lanes. Miles Rubin had four fouls, and managed only two points from the line in six minutes of playing time. The Bonnies led 41-26 at halftime and had a 21-point lead with eight minutes left. It was pretty much a rout, with very few bright spots.
St. Bonaventure played back-to-back games earlier this season on Nov. 16-17, ironically at Barclays Center. They beat Oklahoma State by four in the first game and lost to Auburn by 17 points the next day. The Ramblers won the second game of their back-to-back games against Creighton and Boston College with a nice comeback late in the game against BC. Fatigue may be a factor in Thursday’s game, but with an off day scheduled for Friday, both teams will be pushing their players to their limits if necessary.
Loyola has yet to win a game in the A-10 Tournament; SBU won the A-10 Tournament in 2021 and 2012.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... finals.pdfSaint Bonaventure game notes: https://gobonnies.com/news/2024/3/13/me ... t-win.aspxTV/Streaming video: USA Network
https://www.usanetwork.com/live?brand=usaRadio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=183&type=LiveLive stats: https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/ce ... id=214&t=1Vegas odds: St. Bonaventure by 2.5