I was there, and was about 25 feet away from the corner where the game winning shot was made.
Here's exactly what happened: The Bonnie's team bench erupted, but got back to the bench quickly. A security guard, for whatever reason, picked up the ball that had gone through the basket. At the same time, one rogue, local high school student, ran onto the court, got a few feet on, realized that the game wasn't over, tried to make it back to his seat, and bumped into a ref. At the same time that was going on, the security guard with the ball in his hand, is waving for the hs student to get off the court. Meanwhile, a VCU player is looking everywhere for the ball to inbound. Such a strange turn of events.
The VCU player inbounds the ball, desperation heave, horn goes off, students rush the floor. Refs gather, and at this point I believe they are confirming it was in fact a three point shot and how much time should be left (even though the ball has already been inbounded and VCU made a desperation heave already). They then assess a technical foul, mainly because of one local hs student bumping into the ref, and the VCU player not being able to inbound the ball because a security guard has the ball in his hand; waiving back the one hs student. One shot technical foul, which VCU makes, but then they give them an inbounds pass again with .4 seconds left; even though they had already inbounded and attempted a full court toss. Game goes to OT and Bonnies lose.
The Bonaventure fanbase got a bad rap for rushing the court too soon, but no SBU students were on the floor until the clock hit zero. Now as a Bona alum I obviously have a bias, but what the refs should have done was gone to the monitor to make sure that the game winning shot was in fact a three pointer, and how much time should have been given to VCU. Had they done that (which don't you see basically all the time?), this entire mess would have been avoided. That is why I believe they were reprimanded. In addition to the fact that VCU was given two attempts at a halfcourt heave with .4 seconds left. That in itself is a travesty.
You don't see the entire story of what transpired in tv replays, but there are "homemade" videos all over various social media that shows exactly how this played out.
Unfortunately the media jumped on it, and unfairly played the SBU student section. The one kid who ran onto the floor and bumped the ref attends Olean HS and plays hoops I believe.
