Tied with 71 seconds remaining, St. Bonaventure scored the game’s last seven points. The Bonnies posted a 65-58 victory over UCLA in a First Four meeting at Dayton. The win sends the Bonnies to Dallas to face Florida on Thursday evening. The numbers of note:
Possessions: St. Bona 69, UCLA 68 (a little over moderate, undoubtedly affected by Bruin turnovers becoming Bonaventure fast breaks)
Offensive efficiency: St. Bona 94, UCLA 85
Four Factors:
eFG pct: St. Bona 42, UCLA 62
FT rate:St. Bona 35, UCLA 20
OREB pct:St. Bona 17, UCLA 23
TO rate: St. Bona 9, UCLA 29
The key factor in this contest literally jumps off the stat sheet: turnovers. Not only were the numbers exceedingly high for Steve Alford’s Bruins, they were damaging. The Bonnies enjoyed a 30-3 edge in points off turnovers on the evening. Bona also held a 30-20 advantage on points in the paint. A number of those points can be attributed to run offs produced by turnovers becoming transition baskets.
On a night Mark Schmidt’s outstanding Jaylen Adams-Matt Mobley backcourt did not have an outstanding game, Courtney Stockard stepped up big with a game-high 26 points. UCLA was led by Aaron Holiday with 20 points.
UCLA led by Thomas Welsh’s 15 rebounds enjoyed a ‘raw’ rebounding difference of 41-31 over the smaller Bonnies. The OREB percentage also favored the Bruins. The difference as noted was the turnover margin. The major part of the game sending the Bruins home.
Mobley scored 14 points and did add seven boards for the Bonnies. Adams scored eight points on 2 of 16 shooting. He did hit a clutch fifteen-footer late in the game, hit a few big free throws in the stretch and in 38 minutes, did not commit one turnover. Holiday, by contrast, played 40 minutes, knocked down four treys, had seven assists while leading in a dubious category: 10 turnovers.
The Bonnies improved to 26-7 while the Bruins wrapped up the campaign at 21-12.
Footnote. In 1970, Bob Lanier, a Bonaventure All-American Center was injured in the East Regional win over Villanova. The injury denied the Bonnies a chance at playing UCLA in the Final Four for the championship. In post game comments Schmidt alluded to that and added, “this one was for Bob.”
