St. Bonaventure Basketball: Bonnies snap Dayton’s 20-game A10 home win streak

St. Bonaventure basketball was nearly knocked off the tournament bubble, but a big win over Dayton might save them.

Three days after losing to La Salle in what looked like a crushing blow to its NCAA Tournament hopes, St. Bonaventure went to No. 15 Dayton and came away with a 79-72 victory, snapping the Flyers’ 20-game Atlantic 10 home win streak.

There’s still a lot of work left to do for the Bonnies, but the win will go a long way towards keeping the team’s chance at an NCAA Tournament at-large bid alive.

Jaylen Adams, who entered the game as St. Bonaventure’s second leading scorer and the Atlantic 10’s top 3-point shooter, was huge for the Bonnies in the win. The 6-foot-1 sophomore guard went 5-for-9 from 3-point range and 10-for-10 from the free throw line on his way to a 31 point outing.

Adams scored the final 7 points of the game, breaking a tie with a dagger from beyond the 3-point arc, then hitting four clutch free throws to seal the win. He added six rebounds and six assists to round out an excellent all-around performance. Adams also helped pick up the slack for leading scorer Marcus Posley, who was saddled with early foul trouble and struggling from the field.

With the NCAA’s director of officiating on hand, Posley was saddled with three first half fouls in a very tightly called game. The senior went 3-for-12 and tallied 12 points, well below his 18.7 point per game average. Dion Wright, who averages 16.1 points per game chipped in 15 points and 8 rebounds for the Bonnies in the win.

St. Bonaventure’s win gives Dayton its second straight loss in conference play since January 29, 2014, when the Flyers lost back-to-back games in conference play during a four-game losing streak that ended with a home loss to St. Joseph’s (also Dayton’s last home loss in A-10 play). Both of Dayton’s recent losses came with starting forward Kendall Pollard sidelined with a knee injury.

With the win, St. Bonaventure’s improves to 18-7 on the season and its RPI jumps from 54 to 37. Still, the Bonnies’ resume needs a lot of improvement if the team is going to be selected as an at-large bid. Before today, St. Bonaventure’s resume leaned heavily on a road win over St. Joseph’s, which provided its only RPI top-50 win of the year.

Top-100 RPI wins over Davidson and Ohio also give the Bonnies’ resume a slight boost, but neither is in the at-large conversation so the impact of the wins will likely be lessened in the committe’s eyes.

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St. Bonaventure would be in a good position if not for Wednesday’s loss to RPI 232 La Salle and a January loss at RPI 142 Duquesne. By itself, even the Duquesne loss likely could’ve been absorbed by the two road wins over the A-10 heavyweights, but thanks to Wednesday’s result the big wins will merely serve to get the Bonnies back into the bubble conversation.

St. Bonaventure will likely need to win out in the regular season, which would include completing a regular season sweep of St. Joseph’s, to find itself on the right side of the bubble heading into conference tournament play. Depending on its Atlantic 10 Tournament foes, a win or two will be necessary to ease some of the stress that will come on Selection Sunday.

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It’s a daunting task, but it’s the price St. Bonaventure will have to pay for the eyesores on its resume.

Can the Bonnies get to the right side of the bubble? Let us know in the comments!