University of Richmond
ST. BONAVENTURE
Steenberge Put-Back Leads Men's Basketball Over St. Bonaventure
03/04/2006 | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2006
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. - It would be tough to make up a better story. The last game for a pair of seniors who were recruited by one coach, played three seasons for another coach and then had a third coach take over in their final year.
Senior Jermaine Bucknor scores 17 points, making three 3-pointers, and tries for a fourth with his team trailing by two with under 10 seconds remaining. The shot is off the mark and the seniors seem headed to a loss in their last home game in the Robins Center, until the rebound comes right to senior Kevin Steenberge.
Steenberge grabs the ball and hastily gets off a lay-up in traffic, the ball goes in, the whistle blows. Steenberge pumps his fist and the crowd of 5,624 goes into a frenzy. Count the basket and Steenberge is going to the foul line with six seconds left with a chance to put Richmond up one. After two timeouts to ice Steenberge, the senior steps to the foul line, back rims the free throw, but shooter's touch has the ball go straight up in the air and down through the hoop.
Richmond prevents St. Bonaventure from getting off a shot in the final six seconds and the Spiders pull off a dramatic 65-64 victory.
"I didn't even see it come, I just heard someone call out `shot.'" Steenberge said of Bucknor's shot. "I knew where it was coming from and I rushed to the weak side and tried to find a man to box out and it just dropped. I grabbed and it and at that point just knew I had to get it up to the rim as quickly as possible. The foul was called and the way I have been shooting free throws I was a little anxious. Having the timeout to gather myself and the confidence from the coaches and the team really helped."
"We didn't run the play perfectly, but what we did do was put the shot up with enough time to get the offensive rebound," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "I think that was important for us. When the ball got in Jermaine's hands, it was good because he was going to get something off with time left."
The victory in the regular-season finale gives Richmond a 13-16 overall record and a 6-10 mark in Atlantic 10 play. The Spiders will be the 11th seed in the upcoming Atlantic 10 Tournament and will play the sixth seed (the winner of Sunday's regular season finale between Temple and Fordham) on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Bucknor scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds in a career-high 40 minutes of action. Steenberge's old-fashioned three-point play put him in double figures with 12 points. With Richmond trailing 64-60 with under 30 seconds to play, Steenberge scored inside to cut the gap to two. He grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists on the night.
"If Kevin and Buck aren't out there then we don't win the game," Mooney said. "That was important and I hope these guys feel good about that."
Sophomore Drew Crank tied a career high with 10 points, making two 3-pointers and grabbing five rebounds. Junior Gaston Moliva and sophomore Oumar Sylla each scored eight points for the Spiders. Junior Peter Thomas added seven points.
Paul Williams led the Bonnies (8-19, 2-14 Atlantic 10) with 13 points. Michael Lee also reached double figures with 10 points.
Richmond opened the game with a 13-1 lead, but the Bonnies overcome 70-percent first-half shooting for the Spiders to have a 40-39 lead at the break. It was the most ppints in the first half that Richmond had scored this season and the most points that the Spiders had given up in the first half.
St. Bonaventure led for most of the second half, but by no more than five points. Richmond took a 60-58 lead with 3:06 remaining on a clutch 3-pointer by Thomas from the left wing. Richmond did not score again until Steenberge went on a 5-0 run of his own in the final 22 seconds.
