St. Bonaventure Loses After Fans Ruin Game-Winner With Premature Court Storm [CORRECTION]

This story has been corrected. See below.

St. Bonaventure was all set to pull off a 66-65 victory over VCU yesterday, thanks to a winning three in the game’s last seconds. But, alas, it wasn’t to be. Fans stormed the court with 0.4 seconds still left to play, making it near-impossible for the teams to finish out that final half-second and causing the officials to give St. Bonaventure a technical once the fans finally got off the court. (Courtesy of NCAA Rulebook Article 8, which is pretty explicit in its condemnation of early court-storming: “Team followers [fans, bands, cheerleaders and mascots associated with either team] shall not commit an unsportsmanlike act, including, but not limited to, the following: ... 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.”)

After VCU made its free throw from the technical, the game went into overtime, and St. Bonaventure had to walk away with a loss.

Patience is a virtue, kids.

Correction (Feb. 6, 10:05 a.m.): According to the A-10, the technical foul was called not on the fans for storming the court (which the conference concedes happened after the buzzer) but in regard to a fan stealing the basketball and another fan running into an official.