“I love JB. He helped me when I was at my lowest last year,” Goodwin said. “I’d do anything for him, and to see him get back to the tournament means a lot to me.”

The game was not SLU’s best of the tournament by a long shot. The Billikens were sluggish to start, possibly because of the massive minutes logged the previous three nights. They were outrebounded 42-39. They allowed the Bonnies to get off to a hot shooting start. And they missed their first 11 shots.

But things started to turn when Ford opted to stick with man-to-man defense after switching to a variety of things in the first half. St. Bonaventure shot 26 percent in the second half while senior Courtney Stockard (Jennings High) tried to keep his team close as he made six 3-pointers and scored 22 points before fouling out.

“We started out changing defenses and none of them were working except for the man-to-man,” Ford said. “So, we just stuck with that.”

After SLU built its eight-point lead, it started to slip away. When Stockard hit a 3 from the corner, St. Bonaventure was within two with 56 seconds left. But seconds later he committed his fifth foul, taking away the team’s most experienced player.