That is how good the Lumberjacks were, and how close they were to becoming the first No. 14 seed to reach the regional semifinals since Chattanooga in 1997.
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A layup and two free throws by Jackson sliced the Lumberjacks’ lead to 75-74 with 47 seconds to play. That’s exactly the kind of offensive efficiency that helped Notre Dame reach the Elite Eight a year ago and got it back to the Sweet 16 this season, the first time the school has reached the second weekend of the NCAA tournament in consecutive years since it went six straight years from 1974 to ’79.
Demetrius Jackson spearheaded Notre Dame’s comeback with a layup and a pair of huge free throws to pull the Irish within one in the final minute.
Next up was Auguste, who got two hands on the ball and tried to put it up and in while falling backward, but his shot was short.
“Or if they were lucky, I would be saying the same thing”, Boeheim said.
After it was over, Walkup had his arm around senior point guard Trey Pinkney, friends since their AAU days, as they walked back to the locker room. “I think it’s all about the approach, and that’s what we’re approaching it like”. The teams were tied three more times before Floyd sank another three to give SFA a 73-70 lead and send the pro-Lumberjacks crowd into a delirious tizzy. The opponent had a player (with a story- in this case a bad grooming decision) that was playing lights out, and if you were watching from home… announcers that basically submitted to sacrifice their first born sons and offer up their daughters for no dowry all in the name of Thomas Walkup.
Freshman guard Rex Pflueger was No. 6 Notre Dame’s unlikely hero with the go-ahead put-back – the only basket he recorded throughout the game. “And this is my livelihood and I’m saying to you, until I heard on the broadcast that they had finished the season No. 5, I had no idea”, Martelli said. Earlier in the game, Notre Dame coach Mike Brey kicked the scorer’s table’s LED board after Floyd hit his first three.
Thankfully, it doesn’t freakin’ matter what I think.
“God, that was fun”. “Steve and Rex rotating on him, we slowed him down just enough, because he’s really gifted”.
“They were a great defensive team and they like to turn people over” Jackson said. Coming so close to that goal, but seeing it slip away, was as hard as you would expect.
As long as SFA keeps winning, Walkup said the beard, which he started growing in November, is safe. Big difference. “It’s a ball we should have come up with”, Walkup said, shaking his head.
We would say no harm, no foul… but where West Virginia’s basketball team is concerned there is always a foul, or so it seems, and while that ranked as one of the themes throughout the season it never before stood so tall as in this NCAA loss. “We have plenty of time to prepare now that we don’t play until Friday”. Thomas Walkup leads in points with 17.5 and in assists with 4.5 per game.
Walkup, the two-time Southland Conference player of the year, took it to the teeth of West Virginia’s defense and went to the line 20 times.
But the best came in the night contests.
And while it shortened the number of possessions left, it also slowed the pace of the game – one that had become frantic during a 20-8 Lumberjacks run that swung a seven-point Irish lead into a five-point deficit. But it’s when you see a team out of nowhere (more specifically, out of Nacogdoches, Texas) slap the big boys around and act like it’s their gym too?
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Notre Dame and Stephen F. Austin went shot-for-shot in an NCAA Tournament game that was about as good as it gets.
