St. Joe’s knocks off St. Bonaventure, 75-64, as Erik Reynolds inches closer to Jameer Nelson’s scoring record
Reynolds, who was held to eight points, is now just 20 points away from becoming the Hawks' all-time leading scorer.
St. Joseph’s has won three consecutive conference games for the first time this season, as Billy Lange’s Hawks upended St. Bonaventure, 75-64, at home on Wednesday night.
Once again, it was a second-half surge that propelled the Hawks (18-10, 9-6 A-10) to pull away in a tight contest. St. Joe’s erased two separate eight-point deficits in the first half, the second helping the Hawks pull level 35-35 going into the half.
“We came in at halftime, and we were proud that we fought back, but we knew we had better basketball to play,” sophomore Xzayvier Brown said. “That’s what kind of showed the first couple minutes of the second half, and then I think right in that middle, was the time we were able to pull away.”
» READ MORE: Erik Reynolds II and Rasheer Fleming’s three-point shooting carries St. Joe’s past Richmond
Brown led the Hawks with his fourth double double of the season, scoring 22 points and grabbing 10 boards. It was the Roman Catholic alum’s ninth 20-point game of the season, and continued his streak of scoring in double figures in all 25 games he’s appeared in this season.
But while Brown’s streak continued, senior Erik Reynolds snapped an 11-game streak of double-digit scoring, only putting up eight points, and moving within 20 points of surpassing Jameer Nelson for the program’s career scoring record. Despite the low scoring night for Reynolds, he contributed six assists in the game and Lange said he played some of his best basketball.
“It’s the best basketball that he’s ever played in terms of his defense, his decision making and pick and rolls, driving the ball more,” Lange said. “Everybody else will look at percentages and points. And so when he plays like he did tonight in those other areas, it shows the impact that he can still have.”
The Hawks also got key contributions from others beyond Reynolds and Brown. Fifth-year Justice Ajogbor grabbed seven rebounds and added three blocks on top of six points. Junior Rasheer Fleming had 19 points, six rebounds, and three blocks, while junior Derek Simpson added 11 points off the bench.
“Rasheer’s gaining confidence, [Brown] is rounding into the end of his sophomore year, which is a lot different than what he had to do last year,” Lange said. “Anthony Finkley is doing a lot of good things that don’t really show up on a stat sheet necessarily, when it’s not scoring, but I just think he’s doing a lot of good.”
The Hawks only have three games left in the regular season, the next on Saturday at Fordham. But Brown isn’t worried about looking ahead, he just knows that his team is clicking and said he hopes they continue to play their best basketball moving forward.
“I think each game is a different test, and we’re fine with taking that test,” he said. “We’re not looking ahead. We’re just trying to put two halves together, because we’ve been struggling with that, either it’s a good first half and a bad second half or the other way around. But I think right now, we’ve just been playing good basketball for as close to 40 minutes as we can.”