ST. BONAVENTURE — The St. Bonaventure men’s basketball team got back on track in emphatic fashion, leading wire-to-wire in a 75-53 victory over Dayton Tuesday night at the Reilly Center.

The win was also the 400th in the coaching career of head coach Mark Schmidt.

St. Bonaventure (16-6, 4-5 Atlantic 10) led by seven at halftime and then dominated the second half by holding the Flyers to under 35 percent shooting from the floor while connecting on 54 percent of their own attempts.

Lajae Jones drained a career-high six threes on the way to a game-high 23 points, adding seven rebounds and a pair of blocks.

Melvin Council Jr. filled the stat sheet with 18 points, seven assists and five rebounds.

The Bonnies came out of the gates hot, led by prolific 3-point shooting from Jones.

Jones tallied 12 of Bona’s first 19 points and had drained five treys before the game was 10 minutes old.

A 14-3 run launched the Bonnies to a 24-13 advantage and their lead would swell to 13 at one point during the half before the hosts settled for a 39-32 lead at the break.

St. Bonaventure played a lights out first half last Friday night at first-place VCU as well before the Rams turned the tables after intermission.

There would be no such woes on this night, however, as the Bonnies used a 16-1 sprint early in the second half to pull ahead by 26 at one point. During the run, the Bonnies connected on 6-of-11 tries from the floor while Dayton went 0-for-8.

From there, the Flyers never got any closer.

Bona only had six turnovers on the night and did not allow a single fast break point from the Flyers.

The Bonnies won nearly every statistical category, leading on the boards (36-27), in the paint (28-26), from deep (12-25 vs. 8-24) and at the foul stripe (9-12 vs. 3-7).

Nate Santos finished with 12 points and seven boards for Dayton (14-7, 4-4).

UP NEXT

The Bonnies remain at home to host Fordham Saturday afternoon. Tip time is slated for 12:30 p.m. on USA Network.