ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — St. Bonaventure will face La Salle in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship on Thursday at noon at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Bonnies (16-14) are seeded ninth in the tournament after finishing 6-10 in A-10 play. The eighth-seeded Explorers (15-15) closed the regular season with a 71-63 win at Saint Joseph’s on Sunday to end conference play at 7-9.
The winner of the St. Bonaventure-La Salle matchup will advance to face the tournament’s top seed, Saint Louis, on Friday at noon. The Billikens captured their second consecutive A-10 regular season title outright with a 13-3 conference record and received a bye to the quarterfinals.
St. Bonaventure and La Salle know each other well. The teams split the regular season series as the Bonnies took a 66-51 win on Jan. 22 at the Reilly Center, while the Explorers won 75-67 on Feb. 26 at their Gola Arena.
The Bonnies’ game vs. La Salle will be televised on a regional basis by NBC Sports Network and also will be streamed on Atlantic10.com. It also will air on the radio home of Bonnies basketball, WPIG 95.7 FM, with Gary Nease and Don Scholla on the call.
St. Bonaventure enters the A-10 Championship on a four-game losing skid, including the Feb. 26 loss at La Salle. The Bonnies are led by senior guards Matthew Wright and Charlon Kloof, who were both key members of the 2012 A-10 champions. Wright leads the Bonnies in scoring at 16.7 points per game and has scored 20 points or more five of the past six games. Kloof averages 11.5 points and 5.0 assists per game — second best in the A-10. Junior center Youssou Ndoye, who has played very well in A-10 games this season, is at 9.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per outing.
