A College Basketball Team Lost Because Their Fans Stormed The Court Too Early

Storming the court is fun. If you have never done it, you cannot appreciate the pure euphoria that comes from sprinting onto a basketball court because your school just won a game it wasn’t supposed to win. It’s college basketball’s single most special tradition, although if you ask anyone on the St. Bonaventure basketball team, odds are they really hate court storming right about now.

The Bonnies were playing host to VCU, the top team in the Atlantic 10. It was a tight game, and on their final possession of regulation, St. Bonaventure knocked down a three to go up 66-65. The shot went in with 0.4 seconds left on the clock.

Despite this, some Bonnies players started making their way onto the court from the bench thinking that the clock had run out and they picked up the win. This led to some students spilling onto the court, which led to a technical foul assessed against the bench and the students.

VCU got to shoot one free throw, which went in to force overtime. The Rams outscored the Bonnies in the extra frame, 17-11, and walked out of the gym with an 83-77 victory.

The usual argument against storming the court is that it could end up being dangerous, which is a fair and valid concern. You rarely hear anyone say “you shouldn’t storm the court because it may cost your team a win,” but after today, maybe that’ll pop up every now and then.

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