By CONNOR JACKSON

Special to the Era

WASHINGTON D.C.- The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team’s offensive struggles caught up to them against VCU on Friday in the Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinal, losing 76-59.

“Give credit to VCU,” Bonnies coach Mark Schmidt said. “They played extremely well, they took us out of stuff offensively.”

A-10 player of the year Max Shulga was limited to two points, but other VCU players stepped up and scored in his place while he contributed 11 assists. The Rams still had four players in double digits, Jack Clark scored 17 with three threes, Zeb Jackson scored 14.

VCU crashed the offensive boards, they constantly were able to find second chance points in the first half. On one possession they had three offensive rebounds.

But the aggressive play for the Rams helped create some transition offense opportunities for the Bonnies. Chance Moore was a big factor in transition, moving quickly down the floor and finishing at the rim with hard contact. His explosive athleticism helped keep the Bonnies in the game.

However, in the half court the Bonnies were not able to get good looks. They tried to rely on getting to the rim to get points, but it wasn’t often that they got to the rim. They lacked the timely three-point shooting that they needed too. The Bonnies only shot 21 percent from three, Lajae Jones was 0-5 from deep after going 4-8 against Duquesne on Thursday.

VCU is first in the A-10 in offense, but they are also second in the A-10 in defense. They created steals and turned them into transition points, giving Bona a little taste of their own medicine. “You can’t beat a team like VCU with the athletes that they have when you get outscored 21-6 off turnovers,” Schmidt said.

The Bonnies were only down 16-15 after the first 10 minutes. But VCU took over to finish the first half. Brandon Jennings hit back-to-back three’s to quickly push the lead to 22-15. The Bona deficit became 34-23 with 1:16 left in the half.

The Rams were able to rely on everybody on the floor even without Shulga being a factor, Bona constantly looked to Melvin Council Jr. to take over the game in the half court. He was good, but they needed more guys to be big offensive threats.

“We struggle when Noel just gets six points and four turnovers,” Schmidt said. “We need to have more production inside, we are not a great shooting team so we need to have more points in the paint.”

VCU went into the break with a 36-26 lead, a similar halftime score to the 34-25 Bona deficit to Duquesne on Thursday.

Coming out of halftime, VCU was able to get their lead to 43-30 in the first couple minutes. The Bonnies went on an 8-0 run though with four points each from Moore and Noel Brown, closing the deficit to 43-38.

Jonah Hinton had a chance to make it a twopoint deficit with a rare Bonnie open three, but he missed. Jennings then nailed a fastbreak three on the other end, quickly changing the momentum and getting the Ram lead to 46-38. Schmidt mentioned this moment in the post game presser.

“I thought Jennings was a big difference in the game,” Schmidt said.

The lead hovered around 8-10 points for a couple minutes, but it grew to 13 when a Ram steal resulted in Jackson getting a fastbreak dunk on the other end to make it 58-45 with 7:38 remaining.

“VCU comes after you with a lot of guys,” Schmidt said. “They are so athletic and long. They have everything you need to make a run in the NCAA Tournament.”

There was no big comeback threat from Bona, they couldn’t get the deficit back to within single digits the rest of the game. The closest they got was 62-52 with 4:46 remaining. Council Jr. and Moore each finished with 19 points, Jones added 10.

The 76-59 loss could be the last game of the Bonnies season, the NIT Tournament is still a possibility. Senior’s Council Jr. and Brown were solemn postgame. But they expressed their love for Bona and Olean.

“My first year for the Bonnies was very wonderful, I just love the support that we got here,” Council Jr. said. “The fans travel to away games, I just want to give it back to the fans and the community of Olean.”

Council Jr. still has one year of eligibility remaining, but Brown may have played his last collegiate game. “I think it’s one of the best places on Earth,” Brown said. “I really do love that place, it’s a one of a kind experience and I am glad I got to have it.”

“They are great leaders, they do it the right way,” Schmidt said. “We started out really well, and then we hit a tough spot. If you don’t have good leadership you can splinter. We were lucky to have these two guys as captains.”