St. Bonaventure defeated Hofstra men’s basketball 81 – 75 Tuesday night to extend their win streak to five games, while also snapping Hofstra’s four-game win streak. The Pride outscored the Bonnies in the second half, 39-33, but it was not enough to overcome the 12-point halftime deficit.
St. Bonaventure pulled away at the end of the first half on the back of Jaylen Adams’ 15 points on 5-10 shooting. Adams is the Bonnies’ leading scorer, averaging 22.3 points per game, good for seventh in Division I basketball.
Adams scored a game high 31 points – his highest scoring performance this season. Adams finished on 8-19 shooting and 11-12 from the charity stripe, while pulling down a season-high eight rebounds.
Matt Mobley, St. Bonaventure’s second leading scorer (21 points per game), dropped 23 against the Pride. Only two other players were in double digits, Denzel Gregg (10) and David Andoh (11).
“[It] hurts to be on the short side of this one, great college basketball game. Two teams toe-to-toe slugging it out,” Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich said. “Our guys played their hearts out in the second half, first half I didn’t think we played has hard as we needed to.”
No one on the Pride scored in double digits at the half, shooting 40.6 percent from the field and getting outrebounded 29-13, including allowing 12 offensive rebounds.
Hofstra came storming out of the gate in the second half, going on an 18-6 run, which tied things up.
“I think our guys realized they were better than how they played in the first half,” Mihalich said. “It sounds a little corny but they just reached down inside and played a little harder.”
Rokas Gustys was the one to take charge for the Pride. Coming into the game against St. Bonaventure, Gustys was scoring just 8.1 points per game, but he dropped a season-high 20 points on 9-14 shooting.
“Last game I didn’t have a good shooting night so I was trying to be more aggressive and use that opportunity for Deron (Powers) and everyone else to create from me,” Gustys said.
“I’m so proud of Rokas, he’s fought through some frustrating times. If he’s doing anything wrong, he’s trying too hard. He’s in here extra all the time,” Mihalich said. “I said to him after the game ‘you can relax now, just take a deep breath.”
With four minutes left in the game, St. Bonaventure took the lead and never looked back. “Those two kids (Mobley and Adams) made shots,” Mihalich said. “They made plays when they had to and we didn’t.”
