Atlantic 10 clarifies St. Bonaventure court-storming ruling

St. Bonaventure looked to complete the upset over VCU on Saturday, leading to its fans storming the court in celebration.

However, the Bonnies were assessed a technical foul for crowd interference, as there was still time on the game clock, according to the officials.

VCU made the free throw, tying the game and sending it to overtime, where the Rams eventually won 83-77.

On Sunday, the Atlantic 10 conference released a statement, as shared by Gary Parrish of CBS, claiming the fan interference call was incorrect, though the technical foul was right, due to a different rule violation.

Although the game officials cited crowd interference as the rationale for assessing the administrative technical foul at the end of regulation ... that interpretation was inaccurately associated with the SBU students and fans storming the court during regulation.

The administrative technical foul was assessed for multiple reasons. The most significant was an individual taking the game ball from the inbounding baseline (assuming time had expired) and walking down the sideline, causing the VCU player to look for the ball, and chase the individual to secure the ball for inbound. Simultaneously, one of the game officials collided with a fan on the court, prior to the inbound toss. It was after these violations that the clock expired, and the students and fans stormed the court with :00 on the clock.

Due to the incorrect call, the officiating crew will be disciplined as the outcome reflected poorly on the St. Bonaventure student body.