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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Defending Atlantic 10 Champion St. Bonaventure will look to defend its conference crown after finishing fourth in the regular season standings to earn a double-bye to Friday's quarterfinals. The Bonnies open up against No. 5 Saint Louis at 2:30 p.m. at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. and television coverage will be aired on the USA Network.
St. Bonaventure is 14-9 in A-10 tournament play under head coach Mark Schmidt. With this year's double-bye, the Bonnies have reached at least the quarterfinals each of the last eight seasons the tournament has been completed. SBU has won at least one game in the tournament in each of the past four tournaments (SBU did not play in 2020 prior to the tournament's cancellation) and in eight of the 11 seasons they have qualified under Coach Schmidt. Schmidt's teams have been to the semifinals five times and the title game three times (2012, 2019, 2021, winning in '12 and '21). The Bonnies reached at least the semifinals in 2018, 2019 and 2021 – three straight years the tournament has been completed -- and have been in the title game in each of the past two seasons it has been played, winning the title in 2021 and coming within a buzzer-beater effort in 2019.
St. Bonaventure's trio of seniors who have been with the Bonnies their entire four-year careers Kyle Lofton, Osun Osunniyi and Dominick Welch are 5-1 in Atlantic 10 Tournament games. They're 3-0 with Jalen Adaway and Jaren Holmes.
Only four graduating classes in program history have more wins than the 73 this year's seniors currently own, despite having the 2020 A-10 Tournament canceled and the 2020-21 season shortened to only 21 games.
The senior class has been especially outstanding in Atlantic 10 play. Counting A-10 Tournament games, where this group is 5-1, they are 51-23 against league opponents. Their .689 winning percentage against the A-10 currently stands as the best in school history, just ahead of the Class of 2019 which finished 55-25 in league play, good for a .688 win percentage.
Four members of the Bonnies senior class are 1,000-point scorers: Lofton (1,554 points, 15th in SBU history), Adaway (1,193, 687 at SBU), Welch (1,127, 33rd), Osunniyi (1,045, 45th) while Holmes owns 955 points in three seasons at the Division I level.
Osunniyi, Lofton and Adaway were all named to the Atlantic 10 All-Championship Team last year after scoring the A-10 championship. Osunniyi became the second A-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player in program history, joining Andrew Nicholson in 2012, by averaging 13.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.3 blocks in three tournament wins last year. His 13 blocks during the tourney were just two off the A-10 Tournament record of 15. Lofton scored 23 points with six assists in last year's A-10 Championship Game win over VCU.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 30th meeting in a series that saw the Bonnies take a narrow 16-13 lead with a series sweep this year.
Saint Louis came back from double digits down to hand the Bonnies a heartbreaker in the 2019 A-10 Championship Game when the Billikens won, 55-53, following a second half rally at Barclays Center in Brooklyn three years ago. The Bonnies got their revenge in last year's A-10 semifinals with a convincing 71-53 win in Richmond.
In all, St. Bonaventure has won 12 of the last 15 vs. SLU.
The Bonnies (2021) and Billikens (2019) are the A-10's two most recent champions.
The first meeting between the schools: the 1952-53 season when Saint Louis won at home, 72-61.
In the previous meeting St. Bonaventure won 83-79.
Osunniyi logged one of his more impressive outings of the season, finishing with a game-high 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting. The senior center also delivered three blocks and drew six fouls called against him, another team-high.
Welch was excellent as well with an outstanding stat line of 19 points, six rebounds and four steals in a full 40 minutes of work. Also in double figures for the home team were Adaway (17 points, six rebounds, four assists) and Holmes (18 points, four assists).
St. Bonaventure finished the first half on a 23-8 blitz to seize all momentum heading into halftime.
A medley of slam dunks and strong defensive plays brought the Reilly Center crowd to a frenzy as the Bonnies ran into the locker room with its strongest opening half of the season and a 48-32 lead.
SLU closed to 80-77 with 1:45 left, though, and had a chance to force overtime on a last-second heave that fell short.