Mount St. Mary's went from the brink of a disappointing, season-ending loss to a prominent spot on ESPN.
The Mountaineers rallied from a 19-point deficit with about nine minutes remaining to beat St. Francis Brooklyn 72-71 in a Northeast Conference Tournament quarterfinal Wednesday, completing the comeback when Rashad Whack buried a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds remaining.
Highlights from the game - including an unprecedented court storming by celebratory Mount fans - were shown on the "SportsCenter" that ran late Wednesday night and much of the day Thursday, and Whack's 3-pointer ranked No. 2 on the Top 10 Plays segment.
"What a great way to start off the NEC tournament," MSM coach Jamion Christian said afterward.
Not so great for St. Francis, which still held an eight-point lead with one minute left. As with most huge comebacks, it took two teams to make this one happen as the Mountaineers were nearly flawless down the stretch while the Terriers struggled in everything they did.
"Bottom line is we should have finished it out," St. Francis coach Glenn Braica said. "We didn't."
Mount St. Mary's travels to Wagner for a semifinal game at noon Saturday, one win away from a second consecutive championship game appearance.
As the Mountaineers turned their attention to the Seahawks in practice on Thursday, the talk around many a watercooler - not to mention Twitter, Facebook, and ESPN - was of Wednesday's improbable comeback.
Three different employees who've worked more than a decade at the Mount were asked if they could recall another game that touched off such a wild celebration, with fans rushing onto the court to congratulate the players.
None could. But, then, none could remember a game quite like this one, either. Volumes could be written about the entire 40 minutes, but that last minute, in particular, will live in Mount lore.
Said Christian: "A lot of things happen in the emotion of the game when teams are coming back and you're on the road."
A lot of things indeed.
Having taken about eight minutes to more than halve that 19-point deficit, the Mountaineers still found themselves down by eight points as the game hit the one-minute mark.
At about that time, Whack hoisted a 3-pointer from the right corner. It went long and bounded toward the Mount bench. Sam Prescott chased it down in the left corner, turned and threw up a desperation heave. It didn't come close to going in, but he was fouled and calmly sank three straight free throws with 54 seconds left. Five-point game.
The Terriers committed a turnover on the inbounds pass. Julian Norfleet then drew a foul while driving the lane. It was a key point in the game because the foul was on Terrier point guard Brent Jones' fifth, meaning he had fouled out. Norfleet converted both free throws to make it 68-65 with 44 seconds left.
At this point, Christian could've elected to have his Mountaineers play defense, try to get a stop, and then go for a tying 3-pointers. Instead, he opted to foul.
"I felt like the way the game was going, the way they were struggling against our pressure, I felt like the more possessions we could make for ourselves offensively the better off we were going to be," he said.
Yunus Hopkinson made both free throws. On the other end, Whack missed another 3, but Gregory Graves hauled in the rebound and his layup made it 70-67 with 28 seconds left.
With Jones on the bench and St. Francis becoming rattled, the Mount's pressure again paid off. Whack picked off another bad inbounds pass, knifed through two players and converted a difficult layup, making it 70-69.
Again, the Mount fouled.
"We were sending guys to the free throw line that were making 48 and 58 percent and they were making them," Norfleet said. "I was just sort of betting, hey, the percentages are going to balance out for us at some point."
Lowell Ulmer made 1 of 2 to increase the lead to 71-69, but Norfleet committed a turnover as he drew contact while driving for the tying layup. Down 71-69, again the Mount fouled Ulmer.
And the percentages did balance out. This time he missed both free throws, Graves grabbed the rebound and Christian called timeout with 8 seconds left.
Graves inbounded to Norfleet who got the ball to Whack who hit the shot from the left wing, about 23 feet from the basket, that would be replayed numerous times on "SportsCenter."
When Taylor Danaher intercepted the Terriers' long, last-ditch pass, the game was over and the fans stormed the court.
Christian, Whack and Norfleet all said they never gave up.
"I didn't think it was over," Norfleet said.
Said Christian, who was shown on ESPN drawing up the final play: "I always thought we were going to win it."
