Albany hangs on to beat UNC, 15-12, to start NCAA Tournament
ALBANY, N.Y. >> The pace of Scott Marr on the Albany sideline lacked any sort of organization. Back-and-forth, frontand-back. His hands shifted from being interlocked behind his back, to being at his waist, to nervously clapping.
It was really all he could do, besides watch as his team nearly cough away one of the most lopsided games in NCAA Tournament history. In front of a record crowd at home. One of the most important games of his 17-year tenure as head coach.
An 11-goal lead and been whittled down to just two. With more than 10 minutes on the clock, it seemed oncemighty Albany was powerless to stop an inevitable comeback to the defending champions.
“You can feel helpless,” Marr said, an hour later, relieved from a win.
“You’re not having any control over what’s happening on the field.
In those last 10 minutes, Albany found something. It wasn’t the highpowered offense, the unstoppable play at the faceoff X, but it was, in Marr’s words, the greatest accomplishment this program has ever had.
Albany escaped with a 15-12 win and advance to the quarterfinals next Sunday in Delaware. The Great Danes were outscored 9-1 in the second half, but are one win from the Final Four for the fourth time in program history.
It went from the greatest 30 minutes of lacrosse, in front of a raucous home crowd that showed up despite the consistent pouring rain — to the most tenuous half of Albany’s long season.
Bennett Drake lead with five goals. Connor Fields had one goal and four assists. JD Colarusso had 13 crucial saves. TD Ierlan was 23-of-30 at the faceoff X. And Adam Osika had three goals, the last of which stopped the second-half bleeding.
“We were getting great shots in the second half,” Osika said. “Credit their goalie and defense. They were making great saves. It felt good to get that one more goal in the second half to just kind of halt their run.”
It had been more than 25 minutes of game action in between Albany’s scores. In the first half, they were getting faceoffs and scoring at will. To close the first quarter, a Ierlan pick-up turned into a Fields goal in less than six seconds. But after the break, nothing was that easy.
When Osika scored that goal, Albany’s lone second-half goal, he raised both his hands high in the air. It seemed less triumphant and more a sigh of relief. Albany was able to control possession for the majority of the final 10 minutes, and took pressure off