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St. Bonaventure's would-be game-winner ruined by technical for premature court storm (Video)

Henry Bushnell
·Senior soccer reporter

Court storms can turn into chaos. Usually that chaos is all kinds of fun. But sometimes — and especially when the storm is mistimed — that chaos can turn into a source of regret for days and weeks to come.

St. Bonaventure’s court storm Saturday was an example of the latter. After what they thought was a win over VCU, the Bonnies’ celebrations went terribly, terribly wrong.

With VCU up 65-63 with 3.2 seconds remaining, St. Bonaventure had the ball out of bounds on the baseline. Bonaventure ran a play to the far corner, and junior guard Matt Mobley hit an awkward-looking, contested 3-pointer for the win … or so he thought.

Bonnies players and managers spilled out onto the court, despite the best efforts of coach Mark Schmidt to keep them on the bench. The fans soon followed. But the clock still showed 0.4. VCU inbounded the ball a few seconds later, at which point the remaining time ran off the clock, but when the court storm began, the game was clearly not over.

After a lengthy review, the referees assessed St. Bonaventure a technical foul for the premature storm. VCU’s JeQuan Lewis made the free throw to send the game to overtime with the gym still hysterical.

VCU then caught fire in the extra period. The Rams scored 17 points in the five minutes to secure a win in whirlwind fashion.

It’s a wild and dreadful way to lose a game, but the refs made the correct ruling. From the NCAA rulebook, under acts that result in a one-shot technical foul:

“Art. 8. Team followers (fans, bands, cheerleaders and mascots associated with either team) shall not commit an unsportsmanlike act, including, but not limited to, the following:

…

d. Delaying the game by preventing the ball from being promptly made live or by preventing continuous play, such as but not limited to, followers entering the playing court before the player activity has been terminated. When the delay does not interfere with play, it shall be ignored.”

Because there was still time on the clock, and because VCU was attempting to inbound the ball to put up a last-second heave, the delay absolutely did interfere with play, so the officials’ ruling was correct. Even if students didn’t encroach on the court until the clock hit zeros, players and non-players from the St. Bonaventure bench did. The A-10 later confirmed in a statement that the call was indeed the right one.

To add to the madness, this was a crucial game for VCU, who is squarely on the bubble. If they end up receiving an at large bid, they owe at least a thank you note to those St. Bonaventure reserves and fans who gave them second life on Saturday.