ST. BONAVENTURE, NY (WKBW) — One more game is all St. Bonaventure has before Selection Sunday and the Bonnies are more than ready to take the floor in the A10 Championship Game.
"I think our guys have worked really hard because it's not easy to get here," St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said. "I'm really looking forward to playing well and representing our University in the best way we can."
The A10 title game will feature the top-seeded Bonnies taking on no. 2 VCU. It's their first title game appearance since 2019 where the Bonnies fell to Saint Louis 55-53, missing the NCAA Tournament by two points.
"We need to finish. That's the one thing we didn't do my freshman year," Holmes said about that loss. "I've been seeing a bunch of stuff on TV about how Saint Louis won that game my freshman year. It's giving us extra motivation."
The Bonnies have posted a 15-4 record ahead of the A10 title game and are receiving votes [11] in the latest AP Top 25 poll. The Bonnies have excelled in a few areas, tied for 4th in the nation in scoring defense [60.1] and 8th in field goal percentage defense [38.762].
"You've seen over the past two games we've had, that defense is the reason we won the regular season championship and the reason we've been successful," junior center Osun Osunniyi said. "We understand that if we want to win games and achieve something, we have to keep playing defense."
And with one game left the Bonnies know the NCAA Tournament will most likely be next, regardless of whether they win or lose. But their focus is on Sunday's game, winning its second league crown in program history, and making their city proud.
"A lot of people have a lot of things to say about Olean, but the people here are wonderful and they treat us with nothing but respect," Holmes said. "It would be great to win this not only for us as a group, but for Dr. DePerro and his family."
St. Bonaventure and VCU will tipoff Sunday, March 14th at 1pm.
