When SLU was up five with 9:23 to play, pretty much the last thing I thought was that I'd be writing about another 20-point plus SLU win, but there you go. St. Bonaventure was stuck on 53 points for about 5 minutes and by the time they got out of that, SLU was 17-5 and the UMass game was a slightly more distant memory.

It wasn't just that Bona stopped scoring. It had only six possesions in that time. But SLU scored twice on offensive rebounds, and each time Brian Conklin was fouled and he made the free throw. Kyle Cassity hit a 3, Bona missed the front end of a one-and-one and SLU had a 17-0 run. It was really one of the most devastating runs SLU has had this season, taking a close game and rendering it over. Let's face it: with 9 minutes to go, what were the odds of Grandy Glaze getting in the game?

On the Bona end, they had a missed 3, a turnover down low by Andrew Nicholson, his missed free throw, two more missed 3's, a missed shot and another missed one-and-one.

Two pivotal moments in the game were the technical fouls on Bona, both of which came by hostile reactions to fouls. Da'Quan Cook fouled Conklin with 16:23 to go and SLU down 42-40 and was hit with a T as well. Mike McCall made two technical shots, and then Conklin made his two, and SLU led 44-42. Then with 14:05 to go, Nicholson committed his third foul, complained, and got a T, which pushed him to four fouls and sent him to the bench for six minutes. McCall again made his free throws and SLU was up six. By the time coach Mark Schmidt put Nicholson back in, SLU was up 11 and on its way to a win. It was on Bona's first possession with Nicholson back in the game that he turned the ball over. And then about 2 1/2 minutes later, he got his fifth foul and was done for the night, having played just 10 minutes.

Which made it probably a disappointing for the seven NBA scouts who had come to see Nicholson play. "I'd hate like hell to be the NBA guy who came here tonight," SLU coach Rick Majerus said.

That SLU scored 86 points while making just four 3-point shots was surprising. SLU's previous high in scoring for the season was 83 points against Oklahoma, in a game in which they made nine 3's. When SLU had 80 points against Villanova, they made 14 3's. SLU made up for it by having a season-high in free throws, both made and attempted at 26 for 31. And SLU's percentage on non 3-point shots was 72.7, which is pretty good.

SLU's points per possession was a season-high 1.38, a number helped along by two four-point plays thanks to the technicals. St. Bonaventure was at 1.0, which usually will do you better than a 24-point loss.

That was, by the way, SLU's ninth 20-point win this season, tying the school record set by the 1994-95 team.

SLU had just eight turnovers, its fewest in A-10 play.  Bona had 15.

Bonaventure shot just about as well at the line as UMass did, but those misses on one-and-ones deprived them of chances to interrupt SLU's run.

Over the past four games, SLU has been called for 14 fewer fouls than their opponents.

That was Kwamain Mitchell's best all-around game in a while. Certainly his best shooting at 9 of 13, though he had just two assists, mostly because he drove to the basket so much. Mitchell, you may recall, kept the ball at the end of the last SLU-SBU game at Chaifetz and hit the game winner, and he did that repeatedly in the second half, when he scored 15 points. He was in foul trouble in the first half, playing just 13 minutes. He was +23 for the game in 30 minutes.

Cassity didn't start, snapping a run of 74 straight starts. More importantly, since starting doesn't matter, Mike McCall has played 102 minutes in the past four games to 58 for Cassity. (He had started every game since the start of league play his sophomore season.) At the same time, Cassity went into the game with the score 56-51, and much of that run was done with a lineup of Cassity, Mitchell, Evans, jett and Conklin. While the staff values his steadying influence on the team, it's clear they'd like him to do more than just be a conduit for getting the ball to someone else. When Cassity hit his 3 during SLU's second-half run, the roar of the crowd reflected not only the importance of the points the shot produced, but, I suspect, a relief over him shooting and scoring. It was only his third made 3 in his past 22 attempts. He was +11 in 15 minutes.

Dwayne Evans didn't do too much in the first half, but he had a standout second half with six points and seven rebounds (and four fouls; no one's perfect). He had his fourth double-double, occasionally played the 4 spot in the first half when Conklin was in foul trouble, and was +23 in 31 minutes. "Dwayne did a great job coming back in the second half after having given up three offensive rebounds in the first half and making a couple defensive mistakes," Majerus said. 

Another typical Conklin game, where he made all six shots he took and seven of nine free throws. He had only two rebounds and played just 19 minutes because of first half foul trouble. he was +31 for the game, which says he could have some really big numbers if he had played more in the first half. He had three of the team's eight turnovers.

Rob Loe didn't score, missing all four shots he took, including three 3's, and had just one rebound, but he's logging more time, again a sign of increased defensive faith in him by Majerus. "Rob did a good job defensively," Majerus said. "There's not a column for that but he did a good job defensively." He was +5 in 17 minutes.

 Also another typical Jordair Jett game, with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. He tried and missed a 3; he's 2 for 7 this season, and missed five straight. He was +17 in 25 minutes and made some key baskets in SLU's run.

McCall made his first start since the end of last season and had a season-high 15 points, thanks to four technical foul free throws. He was +14 in 30 minutes.

Not a good game for Cody Ellis, who was 0 for 5/0 for 3 on FGs and 3s. He played just six minutes in the second half, though basically it was Conklin, Evans, Mitchell, McCall and Jett in the final 20. "He played very subpar," Majerus said. He was even for 15 minutes.

Cory Remkun played 13 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble by SLU's big men, and had a three-point play. This was the fourth time in the past five games he's had more fouls than rebounds. And then after playing 13 minutes in the first half, he didn't get on the court in the second half, again because Conklin stayed out of foul trouble. He was -4.

Jake Barnett played three minutes, coming in a little ahead of schedule when Evans had blood on his jersey. All zeroes. And with just over a minute to play, John Manning and Grandy Glaze got in. All zeroes for them too. In NBA parlance, that's a trillion, a one followed by 12 zeroes for the stat categories. It doesn't work as well in college ball because the box scores list minutes at the end rather than at the beginning. That's Manning's third trillion, Glaze's second.