ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — Jaylen Adams drew a crowd, zipped an over-the-shoulder pass to Matt Mobley and waited eagerly for the result.
Over the final 20 minutes, neither he nor the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team would be stopped.
Mobley drained the ensuing 3-pointer from the corner, electrifying the crowd of 3,913 and giving the Bonnies their largest lead at the time, 65-54. In that moment, a terrible first half was all but forgotten.
After a slow start, Adams dazzled in the second half, setting up teammates, making 3s and pinballing his way to the basket. The 6-foot-2 point guard finished with another head-turning line of 25 points, nine assists and six steals to lead the Bonnies to a 75-67 triumph over Yale before an ESPN audience Saturday in the Reilly Center.
It took a half, but for the first time this season, Adams seemed like himself again.
“I just think that everybody was looking around for somebody to make a play,” said the Baltimore native, who had just six points on 2-of-7 shooting at the break. “I think that’s part of my job as a senior captain is to make plays, and my teammates found me in the right spots.
“We forced 21 turnovers; a lot of my points came off action off of those turnovers. I think once we turned it up on defense, it just got everybody kind of going.”
Back home for the first time in 19 days, the Bonnies (7-2) gave their fans little to cheer for over the first 20 minutes. They had only 11 points 13 minutes into the game, trailed by as many as nine and went into the break down 29-25.
Bona was playing so poorly, in fact, that Adams and Mobley were benched for a three-minute stretch midway through the period.
“I thought the first half we stunk,” coach Mark Schmidt said bluntly. “There wasn’t one player out there that played with any energy. I thought in the second half, our leaders stepped up and we came out with fire, with some energy, with some passion.”
With the game tied, Adams made the first of a handful of big plays, connecting on a 3-pointer while being fouled and finishing the four-point play to put his team up 39-35. Bona never trailed again.
In the second half, it doubled up its point total from the first (25 to 50), shot 50 percent from the field and defended well enough to pull away. Courtney Stockard added 13 points while Josh Ayeni and Mobley chipped in 12 and 11, respectively.
In the end, Bona was able to beat a tough and disciplined Yale team for its third top 130 victory of the season.
“We just played harder, we played with more conviction,” said Schmidt, whose team owns victories over Maryland (No. 37), Yale (No. 119) and UB (No. 132). “We were more engaged, and that’s how you have to play.
“When you don’t play engaged … we don’t have the talent just to show up and play. We’re not going to out-talent guys. And the game’s not always pretty, but it’s not about being pretty, it’s about being efficient and effective and you’re efficient and effective when you play hard. I think that’s what we did in the second half.”
By the 9:26 mark of the first half, the Bonnies’ lack of energy was apparent. They were falling victim to the Bulldogs’ ball movement and back cuts. They’d already surrendered four 3-pointers. They were stagnant offensively, and trailed 17-9.
That’s when Schmidt made his move.
The 11th-year coach pulled Adams, Mobley and Stockard and for a couple of minutes went with a lineup that included backup point guard Nelson Kaputo, freshman Izaiah Brockington and sophomore Amadi Ikpeze.
It took until the start of the second half to get going — Bona went on a 21-8 run over the first six-and-a-half minutes to build up a nine-point lead — but the message was received.
“We understood,” Adams said. “We came out kind of complacent, we struggled on offense a lot in the first half. When Coach sat us down, he talked to us and he let us know that the seniors gotta step it up.
“So when we got back in there, we just tried to turn the intensity up.”
Over the final 20 minutes, Adams went 7-for-7 from the line, sank three 3-pointers and totaled 19 points and eight assists. It was the first time since his return against UB that he looked unaffected by his previously injured left ankle.
Yale (6-6) battled without its best player, Makai Mason, and trimmed the lead to five with 7:49 remaining. Alex Copeland had 17 points while Paul Atkinson and Blake Reynolds had 14 apiece for the Bulldogs.
In the end, the Bona founded the energy it needed for a fourth-straight victory and a seventh win in its last eight tries.
“We became more committed to what we were doing,” said Schmidt, whose team forced 21 turnovers and came up with 15 steals. “We didn’t do it perfectly in the second half, but I thought our energy was better. Sometimes it’s not about adjustments, it’s just guys playing harder and smarter and more together, and I thought in the second half we did that.”