Final Score: St. Bonaventure 82, La Salle 72

Location: Barclays Center – Brooklyn, N.Y.

Records: St. Bonaventure 17-14   |   La Salle 15-16

Box Score (PDF)   |   Final Stats and Play-by-Play

The Short Story:

Youssou Ndoye notched a team-high 19 points and 10 rebounds to pace four double-digit scorers to lead St. Bonaventure to an 82-72, wire-to-wire victory over LaSalle on Thursday afternoon in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Championship. With the win, the Bonnies (17-14) advanced to face top seeded Saint Louis in tomorrow's quarterfinal round at 12:00 p.m.

Charlon Kloof put the game away late with six straight points, highlighted by a rim-rattling dunk with just under two minutes left that extended the Bonnies' lead to seven while and for all intents and purposes put the game on ice.

St. Bonaventure held a slim three-point lead at 70-67 following a pair of Tyreek Duren free throws with 3:41 to play, but closed out the game on 12-5 run thanks to scoring on each of its final six possessions.

Marquise Simmons scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds in one of his best performances of the season, while Kloof finished with 14 points and Jordan Gathers had 10. Dion Wright contributed nine points off the bench – all in the second half. Matthew Wright was held in check most of the day but did score eight points.

Video highlights coming soon.

St. Bonaventure Starters: #3 G Charlon Kloof, #24 Matthew Wright, #5 G Jordan Gathers, #33 F Marquise Simmons, #35 C Youssou Ndoye

How It Happened:

• St. Bonaventure delivered the first punch with a game-opening 10-3 run over the first five-plus minutes of the game. Youssou Ndoye and Marquise Simmons combined for all 10 points in the spurt as the Bonnies converted on 5-of-7 from the field.
• La Salle fought back with a 9-2 run to tie the game up at 12-12 with 11:16 to play until intermission.
• St. Bonaventure then rallied by hitting on six of its next eight shots to open up a 25-19 lead at the 7:15 mark of the first.
• The Bonnies' lead would grow to a half-high eight (42-34)at the break thanks to Matthew Wright's three free throws with 6.2 seconds remaining.
• The three points were the first of the game for Wright, St. Bonaventure's leading scorer at 16.5 per game.
• Ndoye and Simmons carried the load offensively in the first 20 minutes, with each scoring 12 points while combining to go 11-for-16 from the field.
• The Bonnies also converted all seven free throw attempts while winning the rebounding battle (14-11) and committing just one turnover.
• The Explorers were able to stay in the game thanks to shooting 56.5 percent (13-for-23) from the floor, including a nine-of-12 from inside the arc.
• The Bonnies pushed their lead to a game-high nine points at 49-40 with 15:17 remaining following a Charlon Kloof layup.
• At the 13:15 mark, Ndoye was called for a personal foul, his third, and then picked up a technical after he slammed the ball off the floor.
• While Tyreek Duren missed both of the free throws after the technical, the Explorers still went on a 6-0 spurt to trim their deficit to 53-52 with 12:26 remaining.
• St. Bonaventure immediately answered with five straight points, highlighted by Matthew Wright's first field goal of the game at the 10:04 mark.
• After La Salle again cut the lead to 61-59 with 8:22 to play, Dion Wright hit a twisting, flip hook shot and Matthew Wright followed with his first triple of the day to extend the advantage to 66-59.
• After Duren again made it a one-possession game with a pair of free throws with 3:41 to play, Kloof scored the next six St. Bonaventure points. Kloof stole a LaSalle pass and raced the length of the court for a dunk that made it 76-69 with 1:58 to go and brought the Bonnies' fans to their feet.
• LaSalle did not come any closer than five the rest of the way.
• Ndoye punctuated the win with a block on Duren in the closing seconds.
• Ndoye notched his fourth double-double and 15th double-digit performance of the season, finishing with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
• Marquise Simmons added 15 points and seven rebounds as the St. Bonaventure frontcourt combined for 43 points and 19 rebounds.
• Charlon Kloof scored 10 of his 14 points after halftime while Jordan Gathers rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 markers.
• The Bonnies won despite having leading scorer Matt Wright's double-digit scoring streak snapped at 12 games.  He finished with eight points.
• Wright didn't score his first point until hitting three free throws with 6.8 seconds to go in the first half.
• St. Bonaventure shot a blistering 53.8 percent (30-for-56) from the field and 90.0 percent (18-for-20) from the line while posting a decisive 30-23 advantage on the glass.

 Beyond the Box Score:

• St. Bonaventure snapped a four-game losing streak while stretching its Atlantic 10 Tournament winning streak to a school-record four games (3-0 in 2012).
• St. Bonaventure's last A-10 Tournament loss was a 75-73 setback at the Reilly Center to La Salle on March 8, 2011.
• Dion Wright scored all nine of his points after halftime while Andell Cumberbatch added seven points in giving St. Bonaventure a 16-10 edge in bench scoring.
• In four games off the bench this season, Cumberbatch is averaging 9.3 points per game.
• The teams split their two regular season matchups, each winning on home court.
• Kloof averaged 12.7 points, 7.0 assists and 2.0 steals in three games with La Salle this season.
• St. Bonaventure's 90.0 percent conversion rate from the line marked the second-best performance by the Bonnies this season.

Post-Game Quotes From Coach Mark Schmidt:
"Going into the game we thought if we didn't defend and rebound like game one, it would be the same result as game two and we would lose. I thought that we came out strong.  I told the guys in the locker room before, you can't play this game not to lose. You've got to play to win, and I thought they had that right mentality."

"We got off to a great start.  I thought Youssou (Ndoye) was tremendous in the first half.  In the second half, the third foul and the technical foul and La Salle made a run at us.  We've lost a lot of close games; not being able to finish, not being able to make that big play to stop that momentum ‑‑ but today, we did.  It was 53‑52 and we had a time‑out and we talked about it and our guys responded."

"I thought Marquise played tremendously, put‑backs, strong inside, especially when Youssou was out, playing a kid like (Jerrell) Wright who is big and strong. But we made plays and we finished ‑‑ we found a way to win."

"As I said all along, momentum is fleeting.  You can't worry about the four losses.  It's when the ball goes up, you have to make your own momentum and I thought we did that."

Up Next: The Bonnies will face top seed and No. 18-ranked Saint Louis on Friday at noon in the quarterfinals. The Billikens were the regular season A-10 champions.