Bona Men Fall to Marshall

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A 20-6 run to open the second half and four players in double figures helped Conference USA foe Marshall hand St. Bonaventure a 80-61 loss on Saturday afternoon at the Cam Henderson Center.

The loss puts an end to non-conference play for the Bonnies and drops their record to 7-6 heading into Atlantic 10 action this week. Marshall now stands at 11-2 heading into the start of its league play and extends its home winning streak to 13 games.

Leading the way for Marshall was freshman Hassan Whiteside, who finished with game-highs of 17 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks. The 7-foot freshman did all of his damage in the second half and played just 19 minutes. Fellow big man Tyler Wilkerson also finished with a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards.

Making his first career start, junior Ogo Adegboye (London, England/Findlay Prep) led the Brown and White with 15 points in a full 40 minutes of work. Senior Jonathan Hall (Miami, Fla./Miami Senior) finished with his second double-double in the last three games with 11 points and 10 boards also over 40 minutes. Sophomore Andrew Nicholson (Mississauga, Ontario/Father Michael Goetz Secondary) was the final Bonnie in double figures with 11 points and eight rebounds.

For the game, St. Bonaventure shot just 37 percent (22-60) from the field, but was doomed by its 10-for-35 performance in the second half. On the flipside, Marshall connected on 15-of-30 from the floor in the final frame and went 10-of-14 from the free throw line. The play of Whiteside in the second half helped the Thundering Herd outscore the Bonnies 24-12 in the paint.

“Give a lot of credit to Marshall. That’s a good team, that’s well coached and has a tremendous player in Whiteside,” said head coach Mark Schmidt. “He changes everything when he’s in there and to beat them you’ve got to make shots from the outside and we certainly didn’t do that.”
The Bonnies finished a mere 5-of-22 from long range for the game.

Nicholson accounted for seven of the team’s first 13 points and brought the Bonnies to within one, 14-13, following his second dunk at the 11:08 mark.

Marshall then broke open the game with a 16-3 run that gave the home team a commanding 30-16 edge with just over five minutes remaining in the half. A rash of Bona turnovers helped the run, as the Thundering Herd sank 6-of-7 from the field during the scoring spurt.

St. Bonaventure did counter the big Marshall run with a 10-2 spurt of its own. The run began and ended with a layup by sophomore Michael Davenport (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller) with the last coming with a foul to cut it to a 32-26 game with 2:45 left.

The Herd lead reached double-digits again, but a layup by Adegboye with six seconds remaining made it a 39-30 score at the break. The halftime deficit was just St. Bonaventure’s fourth of the season, as it was hampered by 10 turnovers that lead to 14 points for Marshall.

Things didn’t get any better for the Bonnies over the opening minutes of the second half, as the Herd accounted for 20 of the first 26 points of the final frame. St. Bonaventure went just 2-for-19 from the field over the opening 10 minutes allowing Marshall to build a 59-36 advantage.

The Bonnies got as close as 10, 69-59, with a little less than three minutes to play, but the Herd put the game away by finishing on a 12-2 run.

St. Bonaventure will host George Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 6 in the A-10 opener for both clubs. Gametime at the Reilly Center is scheduled for 7 p.m.