St. Bonaventure Basketball: Bonnies VS Southern Indiana, Nov. 22nd

0 Barry Evans F, Fr., 6-8/205, Baltimore, MD

5-11/165, Dorcester, MA

Fr., 6-6/200,

5 Daryl Banks III G, R-Jr., 6-3/170, Somerset, NJ

10 Max Amadasun C, R-So., 6-10/250, Dublin, Ireland

11

Anouar Mellouk F, R-Fr., 6-8/205, Amsterdam, Netherlands

21 Melian Martinez F/C, Fr., 6-10/ 200, Santo Domingo, Dom. Republic

23 Anthony Belardinelli G, Jr., 6-3, Upper Saddle River, NJ

24 Brett Rumpel G, R-Fr., 6-4/190, Binghamton, NY

30 Broek Ostrom G, Fr., 6-2, Holley, NY

32 Chad Venning F, R-So., 6-10/270, Brooklyn, NY

35 Anquan Hill F, So., 6-9/200, Philadelphia, PA

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

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2 3 4 5 4 Moses Flowers G, R-Jr., 6-3/180, Dorcester, MA

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 NO.

RS Tyler Curran G, Fr., 6-2/185, Allegany, NY

0 Jelani Simmons G, Sr., 6-5/190, Columbus, OH

1 Isaiah Swope G, So., 5-10/170, Newburgh, IN

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2 Gary Solomon G, Jr., 6-6/200, Detroit, MI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5

3 Tyler Henry G, Jr., 6-4/186, Brooklyn, NY 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5

4 Peter Nwoke F, Fr., 6-7/215, Lagos, Nigeria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5

5 Ryan Hall G, So., 6-5/190, Kettering, OH

10 Sam Mervis G, So., 5-11/175, Indianapolis, IN

11 Jack Mielke F, So., 6-7/220, Downers Grove, IL

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 21 AJ Smith G/F, Fr., 6-6/215, Edwardsville, IL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 24 Jack Campion G, Fr., 5-11/170, Milton, WI 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 32 Jacob Polakovich F, Sr., 6-9/245, Grand Rapids, MI

13 Jeremiah Hernandez G, So., 6-4/180, Chicago, IL

GAME NOTES

• St. Bonaventure hosts Southern Indiana Tuesday night in the second of three games in the Gotham Classic. St. Bonaventure defeated Bowling Green in the opener, 81-68, while USI dropped its Gotham opener last Wednesday at Notre Dame, 82-70. The Bonnies and Irish play on Long Island Friday in the Gotham Classic Showcase Game.

• Daryl Banks III led the way with a career-best 34 points in Saturday’s win over Bowling Green, on 10-of-16 shooting from the floor. He also added a careerhigh four blocks.

• Banks’ 34 points represent the most by a Bonnies player in any game since Jaren Holmes scored 38 in a January 2021 win over Saint Joseph’s. He is now just 26 points away from 1,000 for his career.

• In the past 20 years, a Bonnies player has topped 34 points in a Reilly Center game just nine times, with only six of those occasions coming in regulation: Holmes in 2021, Jaylen Adams in 2018 vs. Saint Louis (44), Marcus Posley in 2015 vs. Duquesne (36), Eric Mosley vs. UMass in 2013 (39), Marques Green in 2004 vs. Rhode Island (35) and J.R. Bremer vs. Rhode Island in 2002 (35). The all-time RC single-game Bona’s scoring record is 51, set by the legendary Bob Lanier vs. Seton Hall on Feb. 24, 1969.

• Freshman Yann Farell flashed some of his immense potential in his second week as a Division I athlete, averaging 15 points and nine rebounds in two games last week. In addition to his first career double-double vs. South Dakota State last Tuesday (16 points, 11 rebounds), he posted 15 points and seven rebounds Saturday vs. Bowling Green.

• Redshirt sophomore Chad Venning picked up his first start with the Bonnies Nov. 19 vs. Bowling Green and made the most of it, posting season highs in

points (15), rebounds (7) and minutes (30). His 30 minutes of action were a new career-high. The Morgan State transfer tied his second-best career scoring effort, behind only a 17-point performance vs. South Carolina State last year. He also neared his career-high in rebounding (9, last season). Through four games, Venning has connected on 55 percent of his field goal tries, best on the team (11-20), and is 13-18 at the foul stripe (72 percent), despite being a 54 percent foul shooter (31-57) in two seasons at Morgan State.

ABOUT SOUTHERN INDIANA

• Southern Indiana is transitioning to Division I as new members of the Ohio Valley Conference. The Screaming Eagles went 18-8 in their final season as a member of the Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference last year, ending their season in the GLVC Quarterfinals.

• Returners this season are seniors Jacob Polakovich (11.5 ppg/11.3 rpg) who was a unanimous selection to the First-Team All-GLVC, and the team’s leading scorer Jelani Simmons (14.5 ppg) from a year ago was picked to the All-GLVC Second Team.

• USI made 28 NCAA Division II Tournament appearances, fifth-most of any active D-II program. Also, the Screaming Eagles won one D-II national championship and posted two national runner-up finishes.

• This season, Southern Indiana has started 2-2, securing their first Division I victory against Southern Illinois on Nov. 13. USI has been a formidable offense thus far: through four games, the Eagles are averaging nearly 80 points per contest while shooting better than 50% from the floor as well as over 45% from beyond the arc, hitting nearly 11 three-pointers per contest. Simmons posts a team-best 16.8 ppg while Polakovich adds 12.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg.

2022-23 St. bonaventure men’s basketball GAME SCHEDULE

7 vs. Cleveland State 7:00PM

11 vs. Iona % 11:30AM

16 vs. Florida Gulf Coast 7:00PM

19 at Siena 7:00PM

february

1 at Richmond ........................7:00PM

4 vs. Dayton 8:00PM

8 vs. La Salle ........................7:00PM

NOVEMBER

2 vs. Alfred (Exhibition) W, 76-48

7 vs. Saint Francis (PA) W, 71-58

12 at Canisius L, 84-80

15 vs. South Dakota State L, 66-62

19 vs. Bowling Green....... W, 81-68

22 vs. Southern Indiana 7:00PM

25 vs. Notre Dame # .................4:00PM

30 vs. Middle Tennessee 7:00PM

decEMBER

3 at Buffalo 2:30PM

22 at Northern Iowa .................7:00PM

31 vs. UMass 2:00PM

january

4 vs. George Mason 7:00PM

7 at Saint Louis .......................4:00PM

11 at Rhode Island 7:00PM

14 vs. Richmond ...................2:30PM

18 vs. Duquesne 7:00PM

21 at Loyola Chicago ................4:00PM

25 vs. Fordham 7:00PM 28 at VCU 6:00PM

11 at Duquesne 12:30PM

15 at Fordham ..........................7:00PM

19 vs. George Washington 2:00PM 22 at Davidson 7:00PM

26 vs. Saint Joseph’s ......... 12:00PM

march

4 at UMass 2:30PM

All game start times are listed in Eastern Time and are subject to change. Home games in bold # = Gotham Classic % = Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational

FIGHTING SPIRIT: CHAD VENNING JOINS BONNIES FRONTCOURT BATTLE

MORGAN STATE TRANSFER EYES CONTINUED IMPROVEMENT AT BONA’S

By: Scott Eddy, Assistant Athletics Director for Strategic Communications

Originally published 9/20/2022

With an entirely new look to the roster this season, nearly every position was up for grabs when practices officially begin this fall for the St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team.

While the battles for starting jobs and roles in the regular rotation could be fierce, Brooklyn native Chad Venning feels up to the task.

After all, he’s a natural fighter.

It’s that toughness gained from pick-up games in New York – and from experience in the boxing ring – that figure to serve him well in his first season at the Atlantic 10 level.

Venning, a 6-foot-10, 280-pound transfer from Morgan State, grew up in Atlanta

first, then moved to Brooklyn in the seventh grade.

“Around New York, pick-up is a huge thing. You play a lot of 1 on 1s in the park,” he said. “I feel like that’s where some of my arsenal comes from. Tough games. I feel like you gain a lot of toughness from that.”

Along with his competition on the courts around the city, Venning spent part of his teenage years in the ring, following in the footsteps of his father who was a boxer.

“I gravitated to boxing because I wanted to be like him,” he said.

Boxing workouts have been staples of offseason regimens of NBA stars like Damian Lillard, Kristaps Prozingis and others. Venning, too, feels his boxing lessons (he spent three years boxing as a teenager) help him on the court today.

“It helped my footwork. All my career, even before I knew how to put the ball in the hoop, everyone always told me I had good footwork,” he said. “In boxing, footwork is everything, which a lot of people don’t understand. So I was already coordinated and once I learned how to translate that into basketball, it made me a lot better as a player.”

But as he grew taller it became apparent that perhaps another sport would be his true calling.

“One day I was at my barbershop and my barber was like, ‘You’re too tall to not be playing basketball,’” Venning recalls. “I wanted to get into it and he introduced me to my first coach.”

Venning has the genes. Three of his cousins all played the highest levels: AJ Griffin

Continued on page 15

ATHLETES OF THE WEEK

Behr was part of two records at the three-day Magnus Cup held at Cleveland State.

On Friday, Behr set a new St. Bonaventure school record in the 100-butterfly as he recorded a time of 47.52. He surpassed the previous school-best mark in the event of 47.57 set by Tjaard Krusch during the 2020-21 season. He was also part of a meet record as he teamed with Nick Nakaya, Max Murray and Tomas Botero in the 800-freestyle relay to clock in with a time of 6:41.43. That effort shattered the previous meet record of 6:43.22 set back in 2017 by Simon Fraser University.

Myers helped lead Bona’s 200-free relay team with a time of 1:34.88 as she paired with Ellie Kraus, Rylie Foley and Amy O’Rourke. She also grabbed a runner-up finish in the 'A' final of the 50-yard freestyle on Thursday. Her time of 23.34 was a season-best by half a second.

Bonnies Swim and Dive returns to competition with a home meet vs. Canisius on Saturday, Dec. 3 in the Reilly Center Pool. That meet will serve as the team’s Lyme Disease Awareness Meet.

Alexander behr

halle myers

The GoBonnies.com Student-Athletes of the Week presented by CPL are men’s swimming sophomore Alexander Behr and women’s swimming sophomore Halle Myers.

FIGHTING SPIRIT

was a first round pick this year out of Duke to the Atlanta Hawks and Alan Griffin played at Illinois and Syracuse while their sister, Aubrey, is on UConn women’s basketball team.

As his development as a player continued, he played at Bishop Loughlin High before rising through the prep ranks at Woodstock Academy. Boasted by a 7-foot-1 wingspan, Venning began to gain the attention of Division I scouts.

“I was noticing everyone around me were Division I players. I had other guys around me at that level and I started to feel I could play at that level,” he said.

He committed to Morgan State where he would play in 42 games during his freshman and sophomore seasons. Last year, he averaged 7.2 points and 3.0 rebounds per game while joining the starting lineup late in the year. He made great strides from his freshman to sophomore campaigns, adding nearly six points and two rebounds per game to his averages.

One of his better performances came under bright lights playing in the NBA HBCU Classic on All-Star Weekend. In that game played in Cleveland on national TV as part of All-Star festivities, where he posted 11 points vs. Howard.

The Chad Venning seen today in the Reilly Center looks much different than the man who set foot on campus at Morgan State as a freshman.

He entered his freshman year at 345 pounds but implemented lifestyle changes to get himself into shape. He dropped 30 pounds his first collegiate season, then another 20 last year.

“I was always in the gym at Morgan State. At first, it was hard (losing weight), but it became routine,” he said. “I changed every aspect of my life. I got slimmer, got faster, could jump higher. I turned into a different player.”

As his body and game continued to evolve and improve, that brought him to this past spring when he found himself at a crossroads in his college career.

He decided to enter the transfer portal in the hopes of finding a spot where he could continue his development while playing at a higher level.

“I feel like Morgan did the best they could with what they had. I wanted to see what I could do here,” he said. “I wanted to be somewhere I could focus all my attention on school and basketball, a place that felt like a family.”

Venning now hopes to make his own mark at St. Bonaventure, following in the footsteps of other post players who have gone pro.

“From all the other schools I was recruited, I felt like Bonaventure was the right choice for me. It’s the best thing for me,” he said. “I want to get to the next level, to become a pro. I feel Coach Schmidt did a good job giving us the blueprint. Now we have to get it on our own.”

“Chad’s size and strength will bring a physical toughness to our team right away,” Schmidt said when Venning officially committed. “He is an athletic five-man who has the ability to score the basketball both inside and out. We are excited to bring Chad into the program and expect him to make an impact.”

Away from the court, Venning has hopes of potentially one day putting the values of his new Franciscan institution to good use whenever his playing days end. In the future, he’d like to work with those in need after seeing his mother run a nonprofit agency called Young People Matter, which provided an array of services to youth in need in metro Atlanta during Venning’s teenage days.

“Hopefully one of these days I can start that back up. Doing things from the kindness of your heart, that’s what you should do,” he said. “I always watched my mom do things for other people and wanted to do the same thing.”

Kindness is a virtue away from the court. On the court, though, Venning plans on being tough.

NOVEMBER

decEMBER 2 vs. Niagara 6:00PM

4 at Kent State 2:00PM 7 at Canisius ...........................6:00PM 9 vs. Binghamton 7:00PM 16 at Robert Morris 7:00PM 18 at Marshall ..........................1:00PM 21 vs. Colgate ........................1:00PM 28 vs. Buffalo 4:00PM 31 at Massachusetts 2:00PM

january

5 vs. George Mason 7:00PM 8 vs. George Washington 1:00PM 11 at Duquesne........................6:00PM 14 at Davidson 1:00PM 19 vs. Dayton 7:00PM

22 vs. Rhode Island 1:00PM 25 at Saint Joseph’s .................7:00PM 28 at La Salle 2:00PM

february

1 vs. Fordham......................6:00PM 5 vs. Saint Louis ..................1:00PM 8 at George Mason 7:00PM 11 at Loyola Chicago 3:00PM 15 vs. Duquesne ...................6:00PM 18 vs. VCU 4:00PM 25 at Richmond 6:00PM

All game start times are listed in Eastern Time and are subject to change. Home games in bold # = Hampton Inn Cleveland Downtown Viking Invitational

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