St. Bonaventure vs Loyola-Chicago: 2024 Atlantic 10 Tournament game preview, TV schedule

St. Bonaventure held on to win in the 2nd round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Can they make it to the semifinals by beating Loyola-Chicago?

TV schedule: Thursday, March 14th, 5:00 pm ET, USA Network
Arena: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York

Another quarterfinal game has been set for the Atlantic 10 Tournament, which has been nothing but thrillers down to the wire. One of those games includes St. Bonaventure, holding on for a 75-73 win over Salle in the 7 vs 10 matchup. It was a balanced effort from the Bonnies, with six players scoring in double figures on the night.

St. Bonaventure next takes on the 2-seed Loyola-Chicago, co-regular season champions of the A-10. It was a big bounce-back campaign for them after finishing last a year ago in their first year in the new league. They went 15-3 in league play, with one of those losses coming by 15 points on the road at St. Bonaventure. Here are the keys to this matchup.

1. Venning/Brown vs Rubin/Adelekun

Both teams like to split their center minutes with two main guys but they tend to get good production throughout their games. For Loyola, Miles Rubin is one of the best shot-blockers in the country as a true freshman, while Dame Adelekun nearly averages double figures off the bench. Chad Venning leads St. Bonaventure with 14 ppg on the season, while Noah Brown is coming off 11 points and four rebounds off the bench on Wednesday. If either pairing has a clear advantage, their team would be in good shape.

2. X-factors, Charles Pride and Phillip Alston

In what could be a close game, I wanted to highlight two players with the potential to both go off but also be quiet at times. Charles Pride scored 13 points in the first half against La Salle but was scoreless in the final 20 minutes, which nearly cost them. He has three games of 20+ points, including 25 versus Rhode Island. Alston is second on the team with 12.4 ppg, including four with at least 20. He also has six single-scoring games, including in a loss to VCU. Seeing which one of them goes off/goes quiet will be something to watch.

3. Loyola's ball-movement

One thing the Ramblers excel at is passing the ball, ranking first in the A-10 with 16.2 apg. They aren't the fastest team in the world so this means that a good portion of their success comes with great ball-movement. On the flip side, St. Bonaventure can get carved up by guards that like to pass-first, including allowing 14 assists to La Salle on Wednesday. If the Bonnies can't find a way to disrupt the offense, it could be a long game for them.

Prediction: Loyola is a quality two-way team and St. Bonaventure can be wildly inconsistent. That's not going to weok against the Ramblers, who I think will push to the semis.

Loyola-Chicago 72, St. Bonaventure 63