By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Editor
St. Bonaventure (18-14, 7-10) punched its ticket to the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals Thursday when they defeated the La Salle Explorers (15-17, 7-10), 82-72 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in this season’s rubber match.
Strong interior play highlighted Thursday’s win over La Salle. Junior center Youssou Ndoye, sophomore forward Dion Wright and senior forward Marquise Simmons combined for 43 points and 19 rebounds despite the presence of La Salle junior center Steve Zack, who earned A-10 all-defensive team honors.
Senior guard Charlon Kloof scored 14 points and dished out six assists while junior guard Jordan Gathers added 10 points.
The Bonnies were able to hold La Salle’s second leading scorer, senior guard Tyron Garland, scoreless but had no answer for junior forward Jerrell Wright and senior guard Tyreek Duren, who combined for 41 points.
Barring any trips to lower-level tournaments, La Salle will fail to earn a postseason victory just one year after advancing all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
The Bonnies will face off against the top-seeded St. Louis Billikens (26-5, 13-3) today at noon. The teams last faced off in January when the Billikens used a strong second half to put away the Bonnies 66-60.
St. Bonaventure’s victory over La Salle was the second game of the A-10 Tournament. Fordham opened the weekend with a 70-67 win over George Mason.
The much-anticipated tournament features the deepest class of A-10 teams in recent memory. Some believe the conference could yield as many as six NCAA Tournament teams, depending on the outcome of this weekend. All remaining games will be televised on NBC Sports or SNY.
The Field
Just for this season, all 13 teams qualified for the post-season tournament. St. Louis, Virginia Commonwealth, Saint Joseph’s and George Washington earned first-round byes. With Thursday’s win the Bonnies will move on to face the top-seeded Saint Louis Billikens Friday at noon.
In the second game of the afternoon, the Dayton Flyers defeated the Fordham Rams, setting up a matchup against the fourth-seeded Saint Joseph’s Hawks today at 2:30.
The rest of Thursday’s games were scheduled too late for print. In the quarterfinals today, the second-seeded VCU Rams will take on either Richmond or Duquesne at 6:30 while George Washington will face off against either Rhode Island or Massachusetts at 9:00.
The winners will move on to Saturday’s semi-final matchups which will take place at 1:30 and 4 p.m. The championship game, which rewards an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Favorites
This year’s Atlantic 10 field is as balanced and deep as nearly any in the country. College basketball commentators and analysts alike expect the league to yield at least five and as many as six NCAA Tournament teams.
The Saint Louis Billikens, led by A-10 Player of the Year Jordair Jett, appeared to be the prohibitive favorites for most of the season. The reigning champions seemed unstoppable just a few weeks ago, riding a 19-game win streak. The team then dropped three in a row before closing the season with a two-point win over Massachusetts. Despite the inauspicious finish to the season, the Billikens finished atop the conference and finished the regular season ranked 17th in the nation.
While VCU may not be as balanced as St. Louis, no team in the conference is more dangerous than the Rams. When they get on a run, they can put games out of reach within minutes. The entire team is excellent in transition. Junior guard Name earned A-10 Defensive Player of the Year honors after leading the conference with a mind-boggling 3.6 steals per game. Junior guard Treveon Graham earned first team all-conference honors while senior forward Juvonte Reddic appeared on the second team.
George Washington flew under the radar most of the season but finished third in the conference in point differential (7.3), third in field-goal percentage (.463) and second in defensive field goal percentage (.411). Senior guard Maurice Creek led the team in scoring (14.6) and plays one of the most complete games of anyone in the A-10.
Saint Joseph’s pulled off the incredible feat of finishing first in the conference in field goal percentage and three-point percentage while finishing last in free-throw percentage. While the Hawks finished in fourth place, they were just sixth in scoring margin (3.9) and second-to-last in turnover margin (-2.03). Luckily for them, they match up well with their likely first-round opponent, the Dayton Flyers, whom they beat by 26 less than a month ago.
The Flyers are not to be trifled with, however. After an inauspicious 1-5 start to conference play, Coach Archie Miller’s squad has captured wins in 10 of its past 11 games after Thursday win over Fordham.
Senior forward Devin Oliver earned third-team all-conference honors after averaging 12 points and 7.4 rebounds in just under 30 minutes per game. Senior guard Vee Sanford, junior guard Jordan Siebert and sophomore forward Dyshawn Pierre provide much of the rest of the offense for the fifth-seeded Flyers.
Some “bracketologists” believe if Dayton has a good enough showing in Brooklyn, the team could receive an “at large” bid to the NCAA Tournament. This seems plausible if the Flyers can figure out a way to get past Saint Joseph’s today. Dayton already has wins over St. Louis, UMass, Richmond and George Washington.
Sleepers
Remember UMass? The Minutemen – nationally ranked as late as February – fell out of the public eye after dropping games to Richmond, St. Bonaventure and Saint Joseph’s in just over a week. However, they won six of eight after that and finished the season with a nail-biting loss to St. Louis. Senior guard Chaz Williams, who earned A-10 first team honors, is a good enough scorer and distributor to swing any game.
Prediction
The VCU Rams will officially punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth season in a row as their potent offense and wild, attacking defense will allow them to prevail over St. Louis in a rematch of last year’s title game.
St. Louis, George Washington, UMass and Saint Joseph’s will earn at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament while Dayton and Richmond will accept invitations to the NIT.
