SWEET VICTORY! Saint Peter’s knocks off Murray State to reach Sweet 16

KC Ndefo elevates over Murray State’s KJ Williams as Saint Peter’s knocks off Racers to advance to Sweet 16. (Photo by the Associated Press)

Before his team even learned of its NCAA Tournament fate, Shaheen Holloway had already thrown down the gauntlet.

The Saint Peter’s coach, renowned for his toughness and ultra-competitive streak as a player, told his players as they cut down the nets following their Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship victory that he was not going to be satisfied with merely participating in the big dance. He wanted, and intended, to make a run through the field of 68.

One week later, not only is Saint Peter’s still standing and running, it is strutting into a stage no other school in its conference has ever experienced firsthand.

Two days after the Peacocks shocked the college basketball world with a titanic takedown of second-seeded Kentucky, they were just as aggressive from tip to buzzer Saturday, never once trailing Murray State, sending the seventh-seeded Racers — owners of the nation’s longest winning streak at 21 games — home in a 70-60 dismantling at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to become just the third No. 15 seed to reach a regional semifinal.

Saint Peter’s, who will now face either Purdue or Texas in the Sweet 16 Friday, is also the first MAAC men’s basketball program to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, joining Marist and Quinnipiac on the women’s side in 2007 and 2017, respectively, as the standard-bearers for postseason success in the conference.

“We’re not going to get too high,” said Doug Edert, who scored 13 points, but saved his best for last with a pair of clutch shots in the second half. What we did is amazing, but it’s already in the past and we’ve got to move on and start preparing for the next team.”

The Peacocks (21-11) beat Murray State at its own game early and often, setting the tone with a physical style that wore the Racers down and placed three of their key contributors in foul trouble before halftime. Saint Peter’s only led by five, 32-27, at the end of the opening stanza, but any concern about whether the MAAC champions were intimidated by the size of their opposition was quickly put to rest.

“I got guys from New Jersey and New York City,” Holloway proclaimed. “You think we’re scared of anything? You think we’re worried about guys trying to muscle us and tough us out? We do that. That’s who we are.”

“We’re a very physical team. Our bodies probably don’t look like it, but these guys play very hard and very physical, so them being a little bigger and stronger doesn’t faze us. When you’ve got tough, hard-nosed kids, they’re ready to play.”

The Peacocks scored the first eight points after the intermission, taking a 13-point lead before Murray State, the Ohio Valley Conference champion, slowly began to chip away. Trailing by 10, the Racers ripped off seven straight points on a run punctuated by consecutive 3-pointers from Justice Hill and Tevin Brown to draw within three points with 8:35 remaining in regulation, prompting Holloway to call a timeout similar to his stoppage Thursday against Kentucky.

“I just told the guys (to) relax, calm down,” he recalled. There’s a reason why they’re 31-2. They’re a good team, they’re going to make runs. We just gotta come down and do the same thing.”

The Peacocks did exactly that, not breaking even as Murray State stayed within one possession. After the Racers fouled Edert on a 3-point attempt, the MAAC’s leading free throw shooter drained all three of his attempts to push the Saint Peter’s lead back to seven. Murray State would go on a 7-2 run to pull to within two points after a Hill 3-pointer made the score 59-57 with 4:05 remaining, but Edert quickly shut the door with a triple of his own, then put distance on the Racers with a backdoor layup to extend the Peacock cushion to seven points with under three minutes to play. Trailing by six, Murray State tried to slice the deficit in half inside the final minute, but a 3-point attempt by Brown missed the mark and was quickly snatched by Ndefo, who was the difference maker for Saint Peter’s after fighting his way through adversity against Kentucky.

“If you see him playing, if you play with him a few minutes on the same court, the energy and passion he plays with when it comes to defense, he has an effect on all of us,” Hassan Drame said of Ndefo, who finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks, including a chase-down rejection of a breakaway layup by Trae Hannibal. “When we see somebody get by one of our men, he’s ready to sacrifice his body to go in and block the shot. It’s really amazing.”

Now heading home and getting to enjoy a homecourt advantage of sorts with the East Regional semifinals being held in Philadelphia next weekend, the Peacocks have silenced the skeptics by winning two games in an atmosphere it had never even been close in before. Still, the job remains unfinished.

“These guys deserve it, man,” Holloway said of his team’s accomplishments. “I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: What I put these guys through during the year, playing the game is easy. Practice is hard.”

“These guys came out here on a mission. Everybody keeps saying, ‘we can’t do this, we can’t do that, we don’t have this, we don’t have that.’ We got heart. That’s what matters.”