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St. Bonaventure rallies past Coppin State 93-81

ST. BONAVENTURE — St. Bonaventure again started slow, but used a dominating second half to run past visiting Coppin State 93-81 Wednesday night at the Reilly Center.

Several Bonnies filled the stat sheet: Jaren Holmes produced a double-double of 24 points, 10 rebounds and six assists; Osun Osunniyi registered 17 points; Kyle Lofton finished with 16 points, nine assists and six rebounds; Jalen Adaway posted 13 points and 16 rebounds.

“I was happy with how we came out in the second half being more active and playing harder. Coppin State played harder than us in the first half, so it was important for us to play harder than them in the second half,” St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said. “When you play harder good things happen.”

Coppin State used a first-half spurt to rush out to a 41-29 advantage with 2:38 remaining in the first half, but a technical foul assessed to the Eagles opened the door for a Bonnies rally.

St. Bonaventure (6-1) finished the half on an 11-3 sprint to close within four at the break, 44-40.

Entering the day, the Bonnies had outscored opponents 244-173 during the second half this season and that trend would continue Wednesday night.

The Bonnies’ run extended to 24-10 as the second half began as the hosts not only took the lead but pushed ahead by double digits, 64-54.

Dominick Welch ignited the Bonnies out of the locker room by drilling three consecutive 3-pointers to bring the crowd to life.

From there, the Bonnies never trailed again.

St. Bonaventure led by 12 after a pair of free throws from Lofton with 2:50 left, but Coppin State would close to a 87-81 tally with 1:27 on the clock. A fast break led to an and-one from Adaway on the next possession, though, putting the Eagles on ice.

“Jaren shot the ball really well tonight. Jaren and Jalen played extremely well, really crashed the boards hard,” Schmidt said. “Karim and Quadry came in and gave us a lift off the bench. I thought Quadry played a good defensive game, he didn’t light up the stat sheet but he definitely did his job tonight.”

Jesse Zarzuela led all scorers with 27 points for Coppin State (1-10).

“As far as the bench goes, any coach wants to know what the bench can give you,” Schmidt said. “Today, they gave us positive minutes.”

NOTES: Welch now ranks sixth in career 3-pointers with 184. He passed Chris Matthews ’10 (182) and Nii Nelson-Richards ’95 (181) in school history. … Osunniyi moved into 10th place all-time in Bonnies career rebounding, finishing the day with 708 rebounds. He passed both Matt Gantt ’72 (706) and Youssou Ndoye ’15 (705). … Adaway set a career-high in rebounding with 16 boards. His previous best was 14 rebounds vs. Fordham in 2017 when he was a member of Miami (Ohio). … Lofton handed out nine assists, his 22nd career game of seven or more helpers. … Abdoul Karim Coulibaly delivered 10 points off the bench, his second double-figure scoring effort of the year. … Holmes now has three double-doubles on the year and, like Lofton, has scored in double figures in all seven games this year. … St. Bonaventure shot 54% in the second half (19-35) as opposed to 41 percent (14-34) before halftime. The Bonnies outscored the Eagles by a 53-37 margin after intermission. … SBU held a 44-32 edge on the boards and 44-30 in paint scoring. The Eagles stayed close by downing 10 3-pointers.

NEXT: St. Bonaventure plays host to Western New York rival Buffalo in a highly anticipated matchup Saturday inside the Reilly Center at 4 p.m. That game is officially a sellout. Fans can watch the game free on the NBC Sports App and logging in through their cable provider.

St. Bonaventure 93, Coppin St. 81

COPPIN ST. (1-10)

Corbett 7-16 3-3 17, Hood 2-7 0-0 6, James 2-2 0-1 4, Tarke 5-12 4-6 16, Zarzuela 10-20 3-3 27, Steers 3-7 1-1 8, Cardaci 0-2 0-0 0, Titus 0-0 0-0 0, Conteh 1-1 0-0 3, Rojas 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-67 11-14 81.

ST. BONAVENTURE (6-1)

Osunniyi 8-12 1-1 17, Adaway 4-13 5-5 13, Holmes 10-14 1-2 24, Lofton 3-8 8-8 16, Welch 3-11 0-0 9, Adams 2-3 0-1 4, Coulibaly 3-7 3-4 10, Ndjock-Tadjore 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 33-69 18-21 93.

Halftime–Coppin St. 44-40. 3-Point Goals–Coppin St. 10-31 (Zarzuela 4-9, Hood 2-6, Tarke 2-6, Conteh 1-1, Steers 1-2, Cardaci 0-2, Corbett 0-5), St. Bonaventure 9-22 (Holmes 3-5, Welch 3-10, Lofton 2-5, Coulibaly 1-1, Adaway 0-1). Rebounds–Coppin St. 28 (Corbett 10), St. Bonaventure 43 (Adaway 16). Assists–Coppin St. 13 (Tarke 4), St. Bonaventure 20 (Lofton 9). Total Fouls–Coppin St. 17, St. Bonaventure 13. A–2,976 (5,480).

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