2011 St. Bonaventure Bonnies Basketball: St. Bonaventure vs Fordham

Despite center Andrew Nicholson playing just 18 minutes due to foul trouble St. Bonaventure had little difficulty putting away Fordham, winning 82-63 at the Reilly Center. Demitrius Conger accounted for 18 points, six assists and five steals while Nicholson scored 16 and two other Bonnies (15-11, 7-6) reached double figures in the win. Alberto Estwick scored a career-high 21 but it wasn't enough to keep the Rams from losing their 39th consecutive conference game. Fordham (6-19, 0-13) will likely need to win out to avoid once again missing out on the Atlantic 10 Tournament, and Lamount Samuell (12 points) and Chris Gaston (11, nine rebounds) were the other players to reach double figures for the visitors.

Fordham actually got off to a good start, rebounding from a 10-4 deficit to eventually tie the game at 13-all on a Gaston shot with 10:38 left in the half. But St. Bonaventure answered with a 10-3 spurt over the next three minutes to take a 23-16 lead into the under-8 media timeout. A pair of Gaston free throws with 4:26 left in the half cut the St. Bonaventure lead to three, but that would be as close as they'd get the remainder of the contest. Over the final 4:26 the Bonnies outscored Fordham 12-1, with a Conger three just before the halftime buzzer giving SBU a 37-23 lead at the intermission.

On the first possession of the second half it was more of the same, with Conger grabbing a pair of offensive rebounds before a Michael Davenport basket extended the lead to 39-23. Brenton Butler supplied all five points in a 5-0 Fordham spurt to cut the lead to 11, but a three-point play from Da'Quan Cook pushed the Bonnies' advantage out to 42-28. The lead would remain in that range until after the under-16 timeout, with a Conger three out of the timeout making the score 47-31 with 15:49 left in the game. Fordham tried to answer but they lacked the ability to make a serious dent offensively, trailing by as many as 21 before the under-12 timeout.

From that point forward Tom Pecora's team could close to within no less than 13 points, with the Bonnies extending their lead out to as many as 21 points on two separate occasions. The Rams shot just 38.5% from the field while St. Bonaventure converted on 59.2% of their attempts. Next up for Fordham is a game against Rhode Island on Saturday at the Izod Center, and St. Bonaventure visits Saint Joseph's the same day.

Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Fans

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