So close, yet so far in overtime defeat
Moments after St. Mary’s season ended with a 67-58 overtime loss to Utah in an NIT quarterfinal Wednesday night, a good portion of the 2,309 fans at McKeon Pavilion bid farewell to the 2017-18 Gaels — in particular, seniors Calvin Hermanson, Jock Landale and Emmett Naar — with a standing ovation.
Few teams get a standing O after a loss. The recognition obviously came from an appreciation of a team that won 30 games this season, and those three seniors who won 109 over their careers.
“I’m glad because that’s what it should be, right?” St. Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett said about the ovation. “These guys have been nothing but first-class for this school, this community, our program. …
“I think everybody can relate to that. I think everybody can appreciate what they’ve done. I think that’s what the standing ovation was, to say, ‘Hey, we appreciate what you guys have done.’ ”
Said Hermanson: “I loved it. (The fans) have an idea of what kind of bond we have. … It means a lot as a senior walking off that court for the last time.”
Hermanson and his teammates would have preferred getting ready to go to New York for the NIT semifinals, but Utah, a No. 2 seed, dominated the extra period.
St. Mary’s, a No. 1 seed, did not own a lead in the overtime. Utah’s Sedrick Barefield hit three threes in the extra period. His trey with a little more than two minutes remaining put Utah (22-11) ahead to stay.
His three with 30 seconds left sealed the deal. Barefield scored a game-high 19 points. The Utes went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc in the OT.
“Down the stretch, they banged some big shots,” Bennett said of the Utes. “Really, that was the difference.”
The Utes will face Western Kentucky (27-10) in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. The Hilltoppers, a No. 4 seed, got 30 points from freshman guard Taveion Hollingsworth in a 92-84 victory at Oklahoma State (21-15) on Wednesday night.
At McKeon, St. Mary’s
“It hurts to see them not play well in their last game, but it even hurts more to see them leave.” Randy Bennett, St. Mary’s head coach, on seniors Calvin Hermanson, Jock Landale and Emmett Naar
(30-6) got 16 points and 15 rebounds from Landale. Tanner Krebs also had a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards.
The Gaels were not good from the field (23for-57, 40.4 percent) and worse at the line (5for-14, 35.7 percent). They also committed 15 turnovers.
Naar, the point guard who finished his career with a school-record 816 assists, was hampered the past month by an ankle injury he sustained in a win at Portland on Feb. 17.
He went 2-for-11 from the field, including an airball with a minute to go in overtime.
Naar tried to put his St. Mary’s career in perspective.
“It’s hard not to just think about tonight and how it ended and plays we could have made,” he said “but … the closeness of this team and just how fun it is to come into the locker room and practicing, things like that … just who we’re with. I’ll never forget that.”
Bennett paid tribute to Hermanson, Landale and Naar.
“It hurts to see them not play well in their last game,” Bennett said, “but it even hurts more to see them leave. You may not get a group like this again. They’re hard to get. When we lost (Matthew Dellavedova) and his crew, I felt the same way.”
Hermanson, a forward who had 254 career three-pointers, second to Dellavedova in school history, said, “It’s really tough right now. It’s just amazing to go through this journey and this ride with the guys in the locker room right there.
“I’m not sure if any of us will ever experience something like that again, just the bond we had. So, I’m really going to miss that.”