St. Bonaventure holds off La Salle, 80-76, in overtime

The La Salle Explorers dropped a home contest to St. Bonaventure, 80-76, in overtime on Tuesday night at Tom Gola Arena.

La Salle (5-8, 0-3 Atlantic 10) held the lead for 72% of the game, yet the Explorers offense stalled when they needed it most, giving up a 6-0 St. Bonaventure run to open the overtime period. The Bonnies (9-3, 1-0), in their first game since Dec. 17, relied on their veteran leadership to overcome a slow start and secure the victory.

“We battled a really good team, one of the better teams in our league, for 45 minutes,” La Salle coach Ashley Howard said. “I feel like this team needed to play a game like that against one of the better teams in the league so that we can have the belief that we can be a good team.”

Clifton Moore and Josh Nickelberry both scored 17 points for the Explorers.

Kyle Lofton led St. Bonaventure with 18 points, while center Osun Osunniyi pulled down 15 rebounds for the Bonnies.

La Salle opened the second half on a 17-10 run that spanned more than eight minutes, pushing its lead to 12. Eleven of those 17 points were scored off of St. Bonaventure turnovers. Entering the game, the Bonnies ranked fifth in all of Division I basketball in turnovers, committing just 11 giveaways per game. During the run, St. Bonaventure had four turnovers.

“We got stops and fast-break points [during that stretch],” said Howard. “We were able to convert those stops to easy layups and dunks, but you have to sustain it.”

The burst for La Salle followed a back-and-forth first half that included five ties. La Salle held the lead for 16 of the opening minutes, but the Explorers didn’t break away until early in the second half.

With momentum seemingly in the Explorers’ favor, La Salle allowed St. Bonaventure to chip away at the lead. The Explorers went on a four-minute scouring drought, giving up their lead with poor defending and turnovers.

The final five minutes of the game featured four lead changes and two ties. La Salle had an opportunity to win the game, but guard Anwar Gill missed a 15-foot jumper with one second left, forcing overtime.

La Salle starting point guard Khalil Brantley had a breakout performance for the Explorers. Starting in place of Jhamir Brickus, Brantley had 10 points and 8 assists, including only one turnover. Entering the game, the freshman had been averaging 18 minutes per game. In the first half alone, Brantley played 17 of the 20 minutes. He finished the game with 42 total minutes played, including overtime.

“I thought he played a tremendous floor game,” Howard said. “For a freshman, this type of game in his first start is big time.”

Brantley pushed the ball off of St. Bonaventure missed shots and turnovers, finding open players and forcing St. Bonaventure to get back in a hurry on defense. His quickness was also a problem for the Bonnies, as he was able to weave through the larger St. Bonaventure players in the paint and find the open La Salle shooters.

In the first half alone, Brantley had eight points and five assists, while committing only one turnover. Early in the second half, Brantley––listed on the roster at a generous 6-foot-1–– ignited La Salle fans with a wide-open, fast-break dunk.

With nine minutes left in the first half, St. Bonaventure point guard Kyle Lofton found a wide open Dominick Welch for a three pointer on a fast break. Howard called a timeout, threw his towel across the bench, punched a clipboard out of one of his assistant’s hands, and was verbally berating his players for the defensive lapse.

“We have to do everything we can control, every game, for 40 minutes, and getting matched up in transition is one of those things,” Howard said. “When they got that shot, I needed to remind them that we don’t want to give up easy baskets in transition.”

Howard wasn’t the only Explorer upset during the game. Right after the first-half buzzer sounded, La Salle center forward Mamadou Doucoure was assessed a technical foul after pleading for a foul call. Howard had to be restrained from the referees by his assistant coaches at the scorer’s table.