La Salle 69, Bona 66 (OT)
How La Salle Won: Clinging to a one-point lead, The Explorers collapsed the lane to get a key stop on Bona's Chris Johnson with 13.2 seconds left in overtime and then survived. La Salle's hot hand from beyond the arc in the first half paved the way to a 16-point lead that forced the Bonnies to expend a ton of energy to get back in it.
Player of the Game: Tyrone Garland, a Virginia Tech transfer, came off the bench to score 16 points and make three crucial free throws in the final 14 seconds of overtime. He was 5 of 10 from the field, 2 of 4 from three-point range and handed out three assists.
Best Supporting Role: Ramon Galloway had a game-high 23 points for La Salle but disappeared down the stretch and turned it over six times while playing all 40 minutes
Player of the Game (Losing Effort): The development of Bona center Youssou Ndoye continues. He turned it over four times, twice on first-half travels. But he scored 14 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots. And remember, he's really still just learning the game.
Stat Check: La Salle is now 15-1 when leading at halftime.
Stat Check II: Bona went just 2 of 13 from three against the highest-ranked perimeter defense in the A-10.
Stat Check III: Mosley stepped to the line with 2.8 seconds left in OT having made 78.1 percent of his free throws. He missed the first two then made the third, which he was trying to miss.
What It Means: Bona remains in search of that signature home-court victory after another near-miss. They've lost to VCU, Xavier, Saint Louis and La Salle at home by a combined 20 points. The win was huge for La Salle, which is among those trying to gain inside position on an at-large NCAA bid.
In the House: The crowd totaled 3,521 but the student section wasn't close to filled. What gives?
Next Up: Bona heads to Richmond Saturday.
Bona coach Mark Schmidt: "I thought for the last 30 minutes from a defensive standpoint that's the best defense that we've played all year. They're a really hard team to guard. They space you out."
Demitrius Conger on his thoughts when the final shot bounded off the rim: "That's the game."
La Salle coach John Giannini: "Obviously it was an incredibly dramatic win and a tremendously hard-fought game between two good teams. We're really fortunate. Tonight one team wasn't necessarily better than the other other than making an extra play."
-- Bob DiCesare
tagged
Atlantic 10 | College basketball | St. Bonaventure
