Rachel Lenzi
ALLEGANY - The St. Bonaventure men's basketball team continues to take things down to the wire, but on Saturday, the Bonnies created a new challenge for themselves: Clean up the messy details after an unmethodical outing.
La Salle defeated the Bonnies 83-82 on Saturday at the Reilly Center, as Explorers guard Deuce Jones hit a 3-pointer off an inbounds play, a shot that banked off the backboard and dropped through the basket with 0.3 seconds left.
On his team's final possession, Bona guard Lajae Jones (24 points, eight rebounds) sent a long inbounds pass to Chance Moore, who was under the opposite basket but couldn't get a grip on Jones' pass as time expired.
"Everybody will talk about the last shot, and give the kid credit, he made a good shot, but it should never come down to that," St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said of overtime.
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Schimdt, though, didn't blame a last-second shot for his team faltering. The process of getting to overtime is what took the 18th-year coach aback. The Bonnies (14-3, 2-2 Atlantic 10 Conference) committed 14 turnovers, and La Salle (9-7, 1-2) capitalized by scoring 27 points off turnovers. By comparison, La Salle turned the ball over six times, and Bona scored just six points off turnovers.
But the loss was indicative of a bigger problem for the Bonnies. They're not minding the little details that make up the bigger picture. Schmidt offered a quick remedy for the Bonnies, who host Richmond at 7 p.m. Wednesday: Repetition.
Make stops on the defensive end. Improve rebounding. Control the ball when it is in front of the Bonnies.
"You can't regress," Schmidt said. "I say it all the time, teams and players never stay the same. Either you get better, or you get worse. If you don't continue to work at it, you're not going to improve."
Three of the Bonnies' last four games have been decided by two or fewer possessions, a 77-75 win Dec. 31 against VCU, a 73-68 loss Wednesday at Saint Louis and the overtime loss Saturday against La Salle. Bona won 86-66 Jan. 4 at Fordham.
The Bonnies led the Explorers for nearly 34 minutes, but trailed 74-71 with 47.1 seconds left after Demetrius Lilley's 3-pointer with 1:19 left, and Jahlil White's driving layup 33 seconds later.
White fouled Melvin Council Jr. (16 points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals) with 32.5 seconds left as his layup dropped through the basket, and Council completed a three-point play that forced overtime.
"It's 5 minutes, let's go out and play," Schmidt said.
La Salle created its last scoring chance after Corey McKethian bobbled the ball with his team trailing 82-80.
The Explorers called a timeout with 3.8 seconds left, and Miles Rose's inbounds pass set up Deuce Jones' off-balance 3-pointer.
Now, the Bonnies aim to minimize the shortcomings after back-to-back losses for the first time this season. That starts with solidifying their identity - " our identity is supposed to be toughness" - Brown said - and being honest about what it will take to prepare to face Richmond.
"It's taking it on the chin and learning from it," said Brown, who had 17 points and eight rebounds. "Obviously, it sucks to lose a game, but you have to take these on the chin and correct it as soon as you can, like life. It's a pivoting thing.
"We've got to figure out what to correct, our mistakes, and then move forward on the same page, as a team."
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College/high school sports enterprise reporter
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