By Paul Casey Gotham
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — Charlon Kloof toed the free throw line. One minute and thirteen seconds separated his St. Bonaventure Bonnies from the Atlantic 10 championship. Their lead over the Xavier Musketeers teetered between convincing and uncertain.
This was the same Musketeer team that earlier in the season overcame back-to-back double digit deficits to defeat Vanderbilt and Purdue.
In a similar situation the day before, Kloof missed two-of-four from the charity stripe and left the door open for the UMass Minutemen to get a potential game-winning shot in the air.
Whether all those thoughts crossed Kloof’s mind, matter not. The sophomore point guard calmly sank both free throws, and the Bonnies led 64-53. Fifteen ticks later, Kloof hit two more from the free throw line as the Bonnies sealed their first A-10 championship.
A point guard playing his role late in the game, making free throws with the result yet to be decided. It was the latest example of a player growing into his role. With his team clinging to a lead, and the opponent trying to lengthen the game by committing fouls, Kloof converted.
Playing in the guard-heavy A-10, Kloof was barely noticed for much of the year. Last weekend in Atlantic City he was hard to ignore.
“He’s a muscular, strong, physical guard,” said Xavier coach Chris Mack. “He does a great job when he’s defending a ball screen. He doesn’t even make his post partners work. They don’t have to because he does a great job of blowing it up. He gets into the ball handler and it’s as though there is no ball screen.”
Kloof endlessly harassed Xavier’s Tu Hollway. The pre-season conference player-of-the year scored 17 (his season average), but it came at a price. Holloway went 0-for-3 behind the arc and hit just one field goal in the second half. Six of his eleven first-half points came with Kloof on the bench.
“He’s got quick hands, he’s tenacious,” Mack continued. “He took it to our perimeter players.”
A day earlier, Kloof slowed Chaz Williams. The UMass point guard who plays the game like a water bug on hardwood found himself harnessed by Kloof in the second half. Williams came into the game averaging more than 16 a game and hitting nearly 40 percent from the floor. Williams hit just 1-of-6 six shot in the second half scoring 12 for the game on 3-of-11 shooting.
“That’s just team defense,” said Kloof choosing to deflect any praise on to his team. “I was late on a couple of screens. I was held back on a couple of screens, but I had my big men showing; I had the wing players bluffing at them. All that slowed them down a little bit for me to recover.”
At the same time Kloof produced on the offensive end averaging nearly 13 a game while handing out eight assists to four turnovers during the three games.
“The point guard position is the quarterback. I’m hard on the quarterback,” said Bona coach Mark Schmidt. “He needs to know his position and everybody else’s position, we run a lot of stuff so as the season has gone along he’s improved. He works extremely hard not just in practice, outside of practice time. He’s a tremendous kid, a tremendous hard worker and I’m glad he’s having the success that he’s having.”
When St. Bonaventure tips off against Florida State in the NCAA East Regional, many eyes will focus on SBU’s leading scorer, Andrew Nicholson. And rightfully so. The Seminoles vaunted defense will look to execute their scheme on SBU’s big man. Charlon Kloof might be the reason Florida State’s plan fails.
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