Saint Peter's fairytale run resulted in a loss to North Carolina on Sunday.
Getty Photographs
PHILADELPHIA — It rapidly grew to become obvious this wasn’t Kentucky or Murray State or Purdue.
The photographs weren’t falling, layups had been frustratingly rolling off the rim. The defensive protection wasn’t there, the opponent was getting open seems on the perimeter and simply outdoors of the paint.
But it surely was greater than that. It was that shell-shocked look on the Saint Peter’s gamers’ faces because the deficit grew, because the North Carolina followers roared, as this dream started to fade deeper and deeper into fantasy.
The clock had struck midnight on Shaheen Holloway’s Peacocks. A much bigger, stronger and extra proficient workforce was enjoying prefer it at each ends of the ground. Its stars didn’t come up brief like Saint Peter’s first three victims.
The inevitable arrived Sunday at Wells Fargo Middle, because the eighth-seeded Tar Heels emphatically ended the Jersey Metropolis faculty’s magic carpet trip via March, pummeling the primary fifteenth seed to succeed in the Elite Eight, 69-49. The one-sided win units up the first-ever encounter between forever-rivals North Carolina and Duke within the NCAA Match, and on the largest stage, too, Saturday night time’s Ultimate 4 in New Orleans.
Winners of 16 of its final 19 video games, the Tar Heels had been too lengthy and too athletic, too proficient and prepared for the second, mentally and bodily ready for Saint Peter’s — not like its first three opponents. It was 9-0 out of the gate, the Peacocks’ largest deficit of the event, and 38-19 on the break. Saint Peter’s missed 19 of its first 22 photographs and had no reply for star forwards Armando Bacot and Brady Manek or standout guard Caleb Love. The three mixed for 53 factors on 21-for-43 taking pictures. Saint Peter’s shot 30 from the sector, and hit solely 4 of 16 from deep. Senior star KC Ndefo was the lone participant in double figures, with 10 factors.
The Peacocks had been down by as many as 27 factors early within the second half. To their credit score, they didn’t lie down. Saint Peter’s saved defending and attacking, Holloway saved teaching. They compelled Hubert Davis to make use of a timeout after getting inside 20, although the MAAC faculty by no means acquired nearer than 19.
The ACC faculty overwhelmed these unrecruited and unranked overachievers from New York and New Jersey, making it really feel like Saint Peter’s event opener — a 2-15 matchup in opposition to Kentucky — was anticipated to go. After all, that didn’t occur. The Peacocks pulled three straight stunners, the primary three NCAA Match wins in program historical past, the primary event victory for a MAAC workforce in 13 years. They grew to become the celebs of this event for 10 days, placing their unheralded and little-known program on the nationwide map, the primary workforce from the New York Metropolis space to get this far since St. John’s in 1999. When the sport began, solely 5 groups had been left within the event, and Saint Peter’s was miraculously considered one of them.
However sooner or later, it was going to come back to a screeching halt. Saint Peter’s was going to get up from this outstanding dream ultimately. It ran right into a buzz noticed Sunday, a blue-blood program with blue-blood expertise that has not resembled an eight-seed for fairly a while.
From the opening tip, it was clear the Peacocks’ fourth NCAA Match sport can be vastly completely different from the primary three. Actuality arrived on the ultimate Sunday of March. It was inevitable.
With 1:21 left, Holloway emptied his bench. The six core members of the workforce — Ndefo, Doug Edert, Foussenyi and Hassam Drame, Matthew Lee and Daryl Banks III — then huddled with Holloway. “S-P-U” chants rang out, a remaining salute for Saint Peter’s thrilling and unpredictable run.
Post a Comment