By Paul Casey Gotham
ST. BONAVENTURE, NY — This one was meant to be. Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino and the St. Bonaventure Bonnies.
Hollywood please welcome the newest kings of drama.
Andrew Nicholson collected his fourth double-double in the last seven games leading five in double figures including Demitrius Conger with his own double effort as the Bonnies defeated the St. Joseph’s Hawks in a double overtime thriller, 98-93. With the win, SBU clinched a first-round bye in next weekend’s Atlantic 10 tournament.
Bona made a pair of six-point rallies to preserve the victory, one at the end of regulation with less than three minutes remaining. The second came with just 40 seconds to go in the first overtime before outscoring the Hawks 14-9 in the last five minutes for the triumph.
“This is the best game I have ever been associated with as a head coach,” said Bona skipper, Mark Schmidt. “Our guys showed great mental and physical toughness. We were dead in the water a few times.”
One of the reincarnations came with 40 seconds remaining in the first overtime. Chris Wilson hit a pair from the free throw line and SJU led 82-76.
That is when Bona penned part of its script.
Charlon Kloof quickly took the inbound and advanced the ball over half-court. Three missed shots later, Da’Quan Cook grabbed a rebound and muscled his way to the basket.
After a quick foul, the Hawks converted just one of two from the line, and Matthew Wright took a Kloof pass in transition and drained a three-ball. SBU trailed 83-81.
Another quick foul and the Hawks left the door open again making just one of two. This time Nicholson spotted up behind the arc. Conger led with a pass and the senior forward connected over the outstretched fingertips of C.J. Aiken sending the game to its fourth act.
“I was proud of our effort,” Schmidt continued. “We persevered. It was a great victory to be able to get ten wins in this league.”
The overtime comeback might not have happened if it wasn’t for the Brown and White rally at the end of regulation.
Ronald Roberts fought his way through traffic for a rebound and putback with 2:58 remaining in regulation giving St. Joe’s a 67-61 advantage setting the stage for the Bonnies first round of dramatics.
On the next possession, Nicholson took a Wright pass in the lane and towered over Roberts with a jump hook. SBU trailed 67-63.
Bona’s defense took center stage.
Conger tied up Langston Galloway off the dribble, and the Bonnies gained possession with 1:10 left. After a Bonnie timeout, Wright went inside to Nicholson twice, but SJU doubled in the post forcing Nicholson to go with a turnaround fadeaway jumper that caught iron. Conger came from the opposite side of the floor and corralled the offensive rebound before kicking it to Nicholson who closed the gap to 67-66 with a trifecta.
SBU’s defense continued to dig in. With the Hawks trying to run down time, the Bonnies forced a shot clock violation and gained possession.
Bona used another timeout to set up what appeared to be the final play with 13.2 showing on the Reilly Center scoreboard.
Kloof moved the ball over half-court and passed to Nicholson, but the SJU defense forced a pass, and Nicholson found Wright wide open in the corner for a catch-and-shoot three.
“I was wide open,” Wright recalled. “It’s a little startlingly how open you are sometimes. A lot of times when you are wide open, you take an extra second, and that ruins your momentum. You just got to go through the routine you normally do.”
The play looked perfectly designed for the shot, but it involved players reacting to the game and finding the open man.
“It wasn’t designed for me,” Wright said of the shot. “We run this in practice and a lot of times my man will double-team Drew because they see that he is getting the ball. I don’t know if he heard me, but I told Drew I’ll slip to the corner if you need me. That’s exactly what happened.”
The Bonnies led 69-67 with two ticks to go. But the script wasn’t complete. A foul on the ensuing play sent Aiken to the free throw line where the sophomore coolly tickled the twine sending the game to its first extra period.
Wright, Kloof and Nicholson all connected from long range in the final five minutes sealing the victory.
“You talk about legacy,” Schmidt added. “This game will be remembered for a long time.”
This game came down to slips, switches and sins. Wright’s slip off the screen at the end of regulation created the open shot, but that wasn’t all.
“We had a couple of switches that we didn’t execute,” St. Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli said of the play on which Wright scored. “We just didn’t believe all the way for 40 minutes or 45 minutes or 50 minutes. Just a couple of switches that we missed.”
The Bonnies won the battle on the boards, 49-30 including 20 on the offensive glass.
“Numbers are what basketball is about,” Martelli commented. “It’s not style points. It’s not what somebody thinks of you. We wanted to get 20 wins. We wanted to get 10 in the league, wanted to get five on the road, all about numbers. You can’t go on the road and give up 20 offensive rebounds.”
“One of our intangible keys for this game was to match the physicality,” Martelli said of the rebounding discrepancy. “We didn’t. A lot of those offensive rebounds were straight runs to the basket, Conger with six. That’s just a straight run. We had him as an energy guy. He wasn’t touched.”
Both Halil Kanacevic and Roberts fouled out during the first overtime. Galloway played the entire extra sessions with four sins.
The Bonnies started the game with a five-point lead. Nicholson connected on a baseline jumper for a 6-3 advantage. Conger added three when Jordan Gathers kept the ball moving on the perimeter from Nicholson’s inside-out pass. Kloof made it 11-6 with a lob from Conger.
The lead was short-lived.
The Hawks took their first edge at 16-15 when Langston Galloway hit his fourth three in the opening minutes. The sophomore came off a stagger screen and caught a pass from Tay Jones at the top of the key for the trey.
SBU quickly responded. Chris Johnson slipped along the baseline for a rebound and putback slam of a Wright attempt. Eric Mosley made 19-17 with a nifty upfake, one dribble and pullup jumper.
The Hawks answered.
Roberts scored in traffic. The junior followed taking a lob from Halil Kancevic and finishing at the rim for a 28-24 lead. Jones added to the difference with a layup on the break.
Bona scratched back. Kloof took another inside-out pass from Nicholson and connected for three. Conger hit one of two from the line. Youssou Ndoye used the window, and the game was tied at 36. Conger gave the Bonnies a brief edge when he and Kloof executed a two-on-one break.
Wilson gave SJU a 39-38 lead at half with a catch-and-shoot three from the top of the key.
Nicholson finished with a game-high 32 points on 12-of-20 shooting including 3-of-5 behind the arc. The senior forward and favorite to win A-10 Player-of-the-Year honors is six points shy of the 2,000 point plateau. He is averaging 26 and 12 rebounds in his last seven outings. Nicholson has connected on 10-of-14 behind the arc during this recent stretch.
“He is a credit to our league,” Martelli said of Nicholson.
Conger added 16 with 10 boards. Cook chipped in 14 with Kloof and Wright getting 12 and 11 respectively.
Galloway and Jones led SJU with 20 apiece. Roberts had 18. Wilson added 13.
SBU improves to 17-10 overall and 10-5 in A-10 play. The 10 conference wins is a program first since 1999-00. SBU finishes the season Saturday at La Salle.
Leave a Reply