BY TOM SEIPP, ADVISORY EDITOR.
Kyle Lofton has played over 254,500 seconds in a St. Bonaventure uniform.
For a long time, Bonaventure fans will only remember Lofton’s final 1.8 seconds of Friday’s Atlantic 10 semifinal game against Saint Louis.
Bonaventure climbed all the way back from a double-digit deficit and had multiple chances to seal the game. The final one came with 1.8 seconds left, where Lofton drew a foul and went to the line for two free throws. The Bonnies were only down one; only one free throw would tie it, while two would send them to the semifinals.
The first one rolled out.
Leading up to the second shot, it felt like ages. One free throw and the Bonnies would force overtime.
In Capital One Arena, Bonaventure’s fan section outnumbered the Billikens with ease. The small Saint Louis fan section shouted from behind its team’s bench. The hundreds of Bonaventure students silently watched from behind the basket where the free throw was being taken.
The ball bounced on the rim twice, but didn’t go in.
Lofton got his own rebound on the missed free throw and had a put-back layup opportunity.
He missed again.
Time ran out; Bonaventure was eliminated.
Every Bonaventure fan, student, staff member, player and coach froze in disbelief.
Free throws are free, but they were not for the Bonnies in Washington D.C.
Schmidt said that he told Lofton that “one play doesn’t define you.”
“He’s been everything to our program [and] to me as the head coach,” Schmidt said of Lofton.
“He epitomizes everything that we want in a player.”
Bonaventure took only eight free throws on Friday; they made three. Ironically enough, Saint Louis had eight free throws too, but they made seven. There’s the game.
Before Lofton’s free throws, with 59 seconds remaining, Bonaventure led by two. Osunniyi, who had just scored the Bonnies’ last five points, got fouled and went to the line.
He missed both.
The Bonnies had four free throw attempts in the final minute and missed all four. Again, there’s the game.
After the game, Schmidt said that his message to his team was that “No games are won or lost on the last possession.”
It was the last minute of gameplay that had the Bonnies squander their lead.
All of Bonaventure’s free throws came in the second half. Through the first 25 minutes, Bonaventure didn’t get to the basket nearly as many times as they needed to. Osunniyi had zero field-goal attempts until two minutes remained; he was non-existent on offense for the first 38 minutes.
“They were just pushing me out of position, just getting me out of my comfort zone,” Osunniyi said. “So I wasn’t able to get to my spots.”
Osunniyi’s two field-goal attempts in the final two minutes were his only two shots of the game.
“Osun’s not a back-to-the-basket guy,” Schmidt said. “They did a good job on ball-screen defense. That made it a little bit more difficult for us.”
Bonaventure is now 20-9 on the season, 12-6 against conference opponents, and will be waiting for the tournament location and seed on Sunday night.
The NIT Tournament, that is.
The Bonnies, who entered the season nationally ranked, will not get their name called on Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament. Instead, they will likely be playing in the NIT Tournament, which Mark Schmidt suggested Bonaventure would accept.
“We’ll see what happens in the next couple of days,” Schmidt said of the NIT. “If we had the opportunity to do that, I think we’d take it.”
seipptw19@bonaventure.edu
