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ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – Senior guard Eric Mosley hit a game-tying jumper with 22 seconds left as St. Bonaventure (11-12, 4-6 Atlantic 10) erased a 16-point deficit, but after Demitrius Conger's 3-pointer missed as time expired in overtime, La Salle (17-6, 7-3 A-10) had claimed a 69-66 win Wednesday night at the Reilly Center.
Mosley had a chance to tie the game with 2.8 seconds remaining in overtime after he was fouled attempting a 3-pointer. However, the 78-percent free-throw shooter missed the first two attempts – and, despite deliberately trying to miss the third – got the last attempt to fall. After La Salle's Tyrone Garland made 1-of-2 free throws with 1.8 left, Matthew Wright's one-handed baseball pass to an open Conger on the wing was perfect, but the senior's shot was just long as the Bonnies dropped their fifth home contest in the last six tries.
Mosley scored a team-high 15 points, 11 which came after the halftime break, to lead a quartet of Bona double-figure scorers. Sophomore Youssou Ndoye produced a quality all-around game with 14 points, a team-best nine rebounds, three blocks and a pair of assists in a career-high 34 minutes of action.
Senior Chris Johnson tied a season high by connecting on 7-10 free-throw attempts as the Nova Scotia product finished with 13 points and a couple of steals. Conger attempted just seven field goals, but tallied 11 points, grabbed seven rebounds and tied a season high in assists (five) and steals (3) as he played all 45 minutes – the ninth time he's logged a complete game this year.
La Salle – which hit a Division I season-best 18 3-pointers in its last outing Saturday against Fordham – came out firing against the Bonnies and hit 7-14 first-half 3-point attempts as the Explorers staked themselves to a 38-27 halftime lead. However, after finishing the first half on a 5-0 run, Bonaventure was able to further cut into that deficit early in the second half, and at the 12:24 mark Mosley gave the Bonnies their first – and only – lead of the game on a 3-pointer, 43-42.
The Explorers responded to the Bona run with a 15-3 stretch to reclaim a double-digit advantage, 57-46, with under seven minutes left. But the Brown and White had another rebuttal in them, and rattled off 11 straight points – capped by a Johnson layup – over the next five minutes to tie the contest at 57-57 with two minutes to play. The two squads then traded buckets until Mosley's shot which forced overtime for the second time in as many meetings between the two teams at the RC.
Ramon Galloway scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Explorers offense, which went cold in the second half as the Bonnies limited the Philadelphia-based school to just 28-percent shooting in the second stanza compared with 44 percent in the opening 20 minutes. Steve Zack grabbed a game-best 10 rebounds to help aid in La Salle's slim 34-31 rebounding edge.
With the loss, St. Bonaventure moves into a tie for the 11th spot in the A-10 with Richmond at 4-6. The Bonnies visit the Spiders in a crucial road matchup Saturday night at 6 in the Robins Center.
Both Bonaventure and Richmond remain a game up on 13th-place Dayton (3-7) which lost at Rhode Island (2-8, T-14th) Wednesday night. The Rams are tied with Fordham, which dropped a 13-point decision to Xavier. The top 12 teams in the 16-team A-10 qualify for the A-10 Championship in Brooklyn's Barclays Center, and six conference games remain (three at home, three on the road) for the Bonnies.
GAME NOTES: The last time St. Bonaventure and La Salle faced off in the Reilly Center, the Explorers claimed an A-10 Championship First Round win in double overtime in 2011 … Charlon Kloof scored seven points on a perfect 3-3 shooting from the floor and 1-1 from the free-throw line … Wright, Marquise Simmons and Michael Davenport each added two points for the Bonnies … the game was a matchup of the league's two best free-throw shooting teams, and La Salle connected at an 81.5-percent clip (22-27), while Bonaventure shot 80 percent (20-25) … La Salle is the only team in the nation which has defeated both Butler and VCU this year … SBU outscored the Explorers in the paint, 30-16, while points off turnovers were even for both teams, 21-21.
