ST. BONAVENTURE — When Rahsool Diggins’ 3-point effort at the buzzer sailed off target and the horn sounded, Bonnies fans could exhale.

Wednesday’s back-and-forth tussle at the Reilly Center could finally be chalked up in the win column and this 73-72 triumph marked another 20-win season in the books for St. Bonaventure basketball.

With the win, the Bonnies improve to 20-10 overall and 8-9 in Atlantic 10 play.

“Overall, it’s a good victory. It’s our 20th victory. That’s the benchmark for a season, to get 20 wins, but we want more,” St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said. “We have to go to Davidson and play a really good Davidson team down there then go to DC. Our goal is to get some momentum going into DC and win the tournament. That’s the only way we’re going to get the NCAA Tournament, and that’s the goal when we started this thing.”

Both teams had moments where it seemed as though their momentum would steam them onto victory, but in the end, the Bonnies had just enough to win their home finale.

Lajae Jones helped pave the way with 15 points and six rebounds along with three steals and three blocks. Both Noel Brown and Melvin Council Jr. recorded 14 points apiece with Council adding six rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Chance Moore tallied 13 points and six rebounds while playing all 40 minutes.

Perhaps just as important as those other standout statistics — the play of Duane Thompson off the bench. The redshirt freshman provided a spark with 6 of his 8 points during the second half along with four boards.

UMass (12-18, 7-10) led at halftime and pulled ahead at the start of the second half before the Bonnies reversed course with a 12-2 run resulting in a 63-57 lead for the hosts with 9:30 to play.

Jonah Hinton caught fire from beyond the arc down the stretch, hitting all three of his triples in the final dozen minutes with his third giving Bona a 69-62 advantage.

The Minutemen rallied back, closing within a 71-69 margin before back-to-back offensive rebounds by Jones and a putback resulted in a two-possession lead with 2:20 left.

“You get guys that are competitive and you have to make plays. I thought we made some plays on the defensive end, and I thought we made some plays on the offensive end,” Schmidt said. “They played that zone. That zone gave us a little bit of trouble. Jonah hit a couple of big shots. I thought Lajae’s offensive putback was part of the play of the game, but when you have competitive guys and you get in those situations that’s definitely what you want.”

UMass would have two more chances, closing within a point with 1:09 left on two free throws from Daniel Hankins-Sanford.

Bona’s defense forced a shot clock violation on the next trip down the floor from the visitors, but the one-point edge remained as Diggins had a look at a potential game-winning 3 that went off the mark as the Bonnies held on.

“I thought we did a good job the last possession, making it really difficult on Diggins,” Schmidt said. “I thought Duane was the MVP of the game. He hasn’t played a lot and we have some injuries and we put Duane in there at the five. For him to come in, and not have played a ton during the year, to come in and get eight and four, it was big for us. He got the belt.”

St. Bonaventure led by 10 during the first half, taking early control with a 13-2 run highlighted by a pair of poster-worthy dunks from Jones.

Soon, though, the game was tied at 31-all and the Minutemen took a one-point lead to intermission with a layup at the buzzer.

Hankins-Sanford recorded 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Minutemen and Diggins poured in 18 points.

NOTES: The Bonnies reached the 20-win mark for the seventh time under Schmidt and for the 19th time in program history. … Thompson was a team-best plus-10 in his nearly 15 minutes of action off the bench. He played some minutes at the “5” position due to a knee injury that has Xander Wedlow out of action. Thompson earned the Bonnies Player of the Game WWE legacy belt for his performance. … UMass shot 38% from the floor while the Bonnies finished at a 42% clip. The Bonnies went 4 for 25 from 3-point land while UMass finished 8 of 25. The Minutemen held a 42-39 edge on the glass, but the Bonnies were 44-30 in the paint. … Council continued his trend of scoring in double figures in every A-10 game this season and stretched that streak to 21 consecutive games overall. … Wednesday’s game was the 79th meeting all-time between the Bonnies and Minutemen, but the last for the foreseeable future as UMass plans to move to the Mid-American Conference next year. SBU has played only four opponents more times (Canisius, Niagara, Duquesne, Saint Joseph’s). … St. Bonaventure travels this weekend to play at Davidson on Saturday afternoon. Tip time is set for 2 p.m.