THEY’RE HISTORY!
UMBC can’t shock again
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the UMBC men’s basketball team tried and tried again Sunday night to become the first No. 16 seed in NCAA tournament history to beat a No. 9 seed, a telling stat in an unpredictable tournament, the Retrievers ran into a problem they should have expected.
For all that they had accomplished Friday night, for how they had made UMBC into a household name with a stunning upset of top-seeded Virginia, the firstever toppling of a No. 1 seed, they still would have to face a very good opponent. They would have to do the unthinkable again. They would have to have their One Shining Moment a second time.
The harsh reality of their 50-43 loss to No. 9 seed Kansas State, the pebble in their Cinderella slipper, was that No. 9 Wildcats could shoot and defend and play like an NCAA Tournament team. Beating the Cavaliers was close to a miracle. A spot in the Sweet 16 had never seemed at once so close and so far away.
“Nothing can take away, this loss can’t take away, what these kids ... have been able to accomplish throughout this entire season,” coach Ryan Odom said. “Certainly in the NCAA Tournament, just to be here is a blessing, for sure.”
The Retrievers, whose place in the NCAA Tournament was uncertain until the last second of their conference tournament final, fought as if their school’s future hinged on the outcome. They chased down fast breaks and flailed at loose balls. They pressed full court against a team with ballhandlers who’d not so much as glanced at UMBC recruiting letters. They had a reserve, sophomore forward Max Curran, shoot a deep, cold-blooded 3-pointer his first time on the court in the second half.
UMBC’s grit was true, but its accuracy was not. As the score hung endlessly, stalling like a broken clock, at 34-33, the Retrievers turned chance after chance into nothing worth celebrating: four turnovers and two missed 3-pointers.
A 3-pointer by star guard Jairus Lyles (4-for-15, 12 points) drew UMBC to 38-37 with six minutes remaining, but that, too, was a tease. Xavier Sneed quieted a crowd talking itself into a go-ahead basket with a dunk. A jumper by Barry Brown pushed the lead to 42-37. The Wildcats held the Retrievers at arm’s distance from there, snuffing out a weekend of unexpected glory with a cold,
exacting precision. They cared not for what had happened Friday night here at Spectrum Center, holding UMBC to 29.8% shooting and forcing 17 turnovers. “For the most part, I felt like we got open shots,” Lyles said. “We just didn’t make any shots today. It happens some games. Unfortunately, it happened today.”
The Retrievers scored the game’s first seven points. They held Kansas State, playing without leading scorer Dean Wade, scoreless for the first sixplus minutes, then answered the Wildcats’ first salvo with a 3-pointer. A Maryland state flag waved for a TV camera courtside as UMBC’s fan section, swelling with the arrival of a bus of students from Catonsville, roared its approval.
Soon, though, there were jeers and groans, the former directed toward officials over some questionable early calls. Ten minutes into the first half, UMBC led 14-10. Another 10 minutes later, it trailed 25-20, its largest deficit of the tournament, the Retrievers having found Kansas State’s on-ball pressure more confounding than Virginia’s historically good defense.