|
Men's Basketball
Bonnies end season with last second-loss at Richmond
March 4, 2006
RICHMOND, Va. - St. Bonaventure's hopes of ending its season with a road win fell 6.3 seconds short. Kevin Steenberge's three-point play with 6.3 seconds left allowed Richmond to escape with a 65-64 win over St. Bonaventure on Saturday night at the Robins Center. Steenberge, a 6-10 senior center, grabbed the rebound of Jermaine Bucknor's missed three-pointer and banked in a shot while being fouled by Wade Dunston. After two Bona timeouts, Steenberge drained the free throw to complete his three-point play. St. Bonaventure's last-second effort was denied when Isiah Carson drove the lane and had his pass for Paul Williams tipped away. Richmond trailed for the entire second half before Steenberge's winning play. Williams had given St. Bonaventure a 64-60 lead with 48 seconds to play. Steenberge made it 64-62 at the 22 second mark when he grabbed an offensive rebound and made a layup. Richmond immediately fouled Lee but he missed both free throws and Richmond had its chance. The Bonnies certainly played well enough to win but were undone by their own free throw shooting, turnovers and rebounding. In the second half alone, St. Bonaventure missed 12 free throws (9-21) and committed seven turnovers. The Bonnies also let the Spiders grab 10 offensive rebounds, the final one by Steenberge obviously the most costly. St. Bonaventure finished the game 16-32 from the free throw line and was out-rebounded 31-24. "One or two more defensive rebounds and it's a different result," said Bonnies coach Anthony Solomon. "That plus free throws have put us in some of these situations this season. There are a lot of very disappointed guys in our locker room. I think that they showed how much they wanted this game tonight."
Although the Bonnies led for the entire second half, their largest lead was a mere five points (54-49). Again, missed free throws throughout the half held the Brown and White back from opening a much larger lead. Both teams tightened their defenses after a free-flowing first half. After Richmond made an astounding 70 percent (14-20) of its shots in the first half, the Spiders went 11-31 (35 percent) in the second half. "We really got after (Richmond) with a good defensive effort after the first 10 minutes of the game," Solomon said. St. Bonaventure found itself in an early 13-1 hole but climbed back with a 12-6 run that made the score 19-13. Richmond made eight of its first 10 shots, including 4-5 from long range, to open the night. The Bonnies began to find their rhythm and gradually pull closer to the Spiders. Isiah Carson's three-point play at the 3:29 mark gave St. Bonaventure its first lead at 35-34. Tyler Benson closed the half with a flourish by draining a three from the right corner with six seconds left to give the Bonnies a 40-39 lead at intermission. St. Bonaventure finishes its season with a record of 8-19 overall and 2-14 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Bonnies finished 13th in the 14-team A-10, a standing which they could not have improved in the season finale. Richmond improved to 13-16 and 6-10. Williams led a balanced scoring sheet with 13 points while Lee finished with 10. Playing in the final game of his brilliant career, Ahmad Smith was held to nine points but did grab five rebounds and hand out three assists. Carson also finished with nine points. Sophomore Tyler Relph scored eight points Senior Patrick Lottin had seven.
GAME NOTES
|
|
