By CONNOR JACKSON

Special to the Era

Melvin Council Jr. starred in the last 10 minutes of a big St. Bonaventure comeback over Duquesne Wednesday, advancing to the quarterfinal of the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Washington D.C.

“He willed us to win,” Bona coach Mark Schmidt said. “That is what your point guard needs to do. Melvin has it, he is competitive and makes big shots and big plays.”

Council Jr. scored 18, and Lajae Jones was 4-8 from three, scoring 18 points as well. Noel Brown was a key in the comeback too, hitting clutch shots.

After being down 48-35 with 12:34 left in the game, it seemed unlikely that Bona’s season would continue. Defense has been the calling card for this team all year long though, and the defensive pressure was ramped up, resulting in a win.

“I know the second game against them at home, we pressured them,” Council Jr. said. “I don’t know why we didn’t do that in the first half. Second half came, and I just had to do it, and I didn’t want to go home.”

After falling into an early 12-4 deficit, the Bonnies were able to take a 14-12 lead. Their offense went cold quick though, seemingly struggling to find a decent shot opportunity every time down the floor.

Duquesne then took control with Maximus Edwards scored six straight to put the Dukes ahead, and Jakub Necas hit a layup to make it 20-14 with 7:52 left in the first half, Schmidt called a timeout. The Dukes stayed in control for the rest of the half, leading 34-25 at halftime.

“I was happy we were only down by nine,” Schmidt said. “We didn’t play well at all. I thought that was a moral victory for us.”

Duquesne continued to maintain a healthy lead in the early minutes of the second half. Matus Hronsky made his third three of the game and Edwards added another three to help push the Dukes advantage to 43-32.

Edwards then scored five more points, creating Duquesne’s largest lead of the game at 48-35 with 12:34 left to play.

“We wanted to come out in the first five minutes of the second half and cut into the lead, we didn’t,” Schmidt said. “But we found a way, and were led by our point guard.”

The defensive pressure for the Bonnies ramped up with their backs to the wall. It immediately started to show results, Duquesne looked more flustered while Bona kept creating steals.

After a Jones three cut the lead to 10, Council Jr. got a steal and dunked the ball on the other end to make it 49-42.

He followed it up with another steal and score to cut the lead to five. Brown began to become a factor when he scored four straight to cut the deficit to 54-51 with 5:12 remaining.

Duquesne got their lead back up to 58-51 coming out of a timeout. But Bona went on a 13-1 run in the last four minutes.

Brown, Jones, and Council Jr. all scored to tie it 58-58 with 2:19 remaining. And Council Jr. hit two free throws to take a 60-58 lead.

“Our guys never gave up,” Schmidt said. “They made the plays in the end.”

Dinkins then missed a big free throw on the front end on a 1 and 1, and Council Jr. nailed a big mid range jumper to make it 62-59 with 1:05 remaining.

Jones got a steal on the Dukes next possession, and Council Jr. hit two more free throws.

“Jonah Hinton grabbed me, and he said bring us home,” Council Jr. said. “I was thinking about that at the free throw line, I told Jonah that I got him.”

The Bonnies held on to complete a huge comeback win to keep their season alive, 64-59.

“We found a way to win,” Schmidt said. “It wasn’t pretty, it’s life. Life is not going to be easy, you gotta deal with adversity and bounce back. We certainly did that today.”

There isn’t much time to enjoy the win. #1 seed VCU is next for the Bonnies in the quarterfinal at 11:30 a.m. Thursday (USA Network). Jones and Council Jr. need to be ready to put up a similar type of performance just a day after playing the entire game against Duquesne.

“18-22 year old’s never get tired,” Schmidt said. “When you are dead that’s when you can sleep.”

Bona won the first game against the Rams at home on Dec. 31, but got beat 75-61 at VCU on Jan. 24.

“VCU is good,” Schmidt said. “We got lucky to beat them at home in their first Atlantic 10 game. When they shoot the ball well from three they are almost unbeatable, we have a big challenge ahead of us.”