by The second contest of the Legends of Basketball Showcase was between the St. Bonaventure Bonnies of the Altantic-10 and the Akron Zips of the Mid-American Conference.
The St. Bonaventure Bonnies captured the win against the Akron Zips 62-61 in what was a slow sloppy game until the last five minutes which gave us highlight moments left and right.
The First half for the Bonnies was everything that they could have dreamed of. The Bonnies Got off to a ten point lead thanks to the efforts to Kyrell Luc and Chad Venning who created chances the whole first half for the Bonnies.
The defense from St. Bonaventure’s took Enrique Freeman out of the first half as he struggled and had a unproductive first half only scoring first points. It was Ali Ali who strung things together for the Zips. The transfer that left Akron for Butler who has made his return to Rocket Mortgage arena for the Zips in his last season.
It only took a minute of consistent play for Akron to get back within four points before the end of the half. Despite a disappointing 18 minutes of play Akron recovered to make this a game. Akron’s second half needed to be more consistent and half a lot more of Enrique Freeman if they planned on getting back in the game and challenging the Bonnies.
Akron’s offense in the second half was well adjusted to go basket for basket with a Bonnies team that played good basketball throughout the game. For the first 10 minutes of the second half consisted of both teams exchanging baskets. St. Bonaventure’s dominated the boards which gave them a small lead. Despite the rebound advantage they failed to make their first and even their second or third chances.
As the game went down to the final five minutes we got some of the best moments of the day. A ground shaking dunk from Chad Venning and a big defensive stops that led to the Zips getting within two got both Bonnie and Zip fans back into the game.
With both teams battling back in fourth Akron found it’s opening and captured a one-point lead with 20 seconds left to go in the game after Shammah Scott sunk two free throws. This lead was short lived thanks to Mika Adams-Woods, he drove towards the paint and stopped on a dime to sink the floater with Freeman contesting the shot. The Sinker acted as the game winner after Akron failed to put up a competitive shot.
