Photo: Atlantic 10
BY NATHAN SOLOMON, SPORTS EDITOR
With 1.1 seconds left, Kyle Lofton drew a foul off a Jaren Holmes missed layup. Down 57-56, two makes would send St. Bonaventure to the Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinals for the fourth consecutive time.
Officials reviewed the clock and added seven-tenths of a second. Lofton stood in the huddle and waited to walk to the stripe.
First shot: off the right side of the rim.
Lofton walked into the lane and back atop the 3-point arc. Finally, he stepped back to the line.
Second shot: off the front of the rim, back of the rim and the front of the rim again. But, it didn’t fall.
Lofton raced in and grabbed his own rebound. He put it up, but it bounced off the backboard and never hit the rim. Holmes raced to it and the ball went flying out of bounds.
Game over.
After winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament in 2021, the Bonnies left in 2022 completely empty-handed. And gutted.
“It sucks for us to not win,” Jalen Adaway, who scored a team-high 18 points, said. “There was just a million things running through my head.”
Saint Louis (23-10, 12-6 A-10) and St. Bonaventure (20-9, 12-5) battled back-and-forth the first 17 minutes and drew deadlocked at 20 with 2:52 left in the half. The Billikens scored six unanswered points in the next 54 seconds and took a 26-22 halftime lead.
“In tournament games, you don’t have an opportunity to shoot here, so it’s going to be more of a defense-oriented game,” Schmidt said. “You’re not going to shoot the ball great, and that’s just the way it goes.”
The Bonnies shot just 38% from the field and 25% from deep, but they dug in and battled back. An 8-0 run for St. Bonaventure gave them a 30-28 lead with 17 minutes to play.
But, it quickly turned into the Gibson Jimerson show for the Billikens. Sparked by a 3-pointer to end the Bona run, Jimerson scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half off 7-of-14 shooting on the game.
“Gibson has gotten better every year,” Saint Louis coach Travis Ford said. “I just love the mentality [and] toughness that he plays with.”
Once again, the Bonnies battled back. Another Jimerson 3-pointer with 10:57 left put St. Bonaventure behind 10. An 11-2 run led by two 3-pointers from Adaway brought the Bonnies within one with just 5:52 to play.
“We couldn’t have played harder,” Schmidt said. “We got down seven or nine and we fought back.”
After a Dominick Welch 3-pointer to cut the lead to two with 2:40 left, Osun Osunniyi converted a 3-point play to give St. Bonaventure its first lead of the half. Jimerson responded with a 3-pointer on the other end to snatch the lead back and Osunniyi followed with another basket.
Holmes blocked a 3-pointer from Francis Okoro with 1:00 remaining and Osunniyi drew a foul on the rebound. He missed both shots and gave the Billikens a chance to take a lead in the closing seconds. Saint Louis had three opportunities, thanks to a rebound off Bonaventure and a held ball, and finally, Jimerson connected on a contested jumper with 17 seconds left.
Lofton brought the ball down after a timeout and fed it to Holmes for a chance to win. Holmes missed a floater off the front of the rim and Lofton grabbed the rebound, leading to the two missed free throws.
“One play doesn’t define you,” Schmidt said of Lofton. “He’s been everything to our program [and] to me as the head coach. He epitomizes everything that we want in a player.”
Okoro scored 14 points for Saint Louis and Yuri Collins added 11. The Billikens shot 39% from the field and 43% from deep.
For the Bonnies, Welch complemented Adaway with 14 points and Lofton scored 10.
While it may sting now, St. Bonaventure’s season may not be over just yet. Schmidt said the team would consider an NIT run if invited.
“We’ll see what happens in the next couple of days,” Schmidt said. “If we had the opportunity to do that, I think we’d take it.”
solomonj20@bonaventure.edu
