NEC SEMIFINALS Mt. St. Mary 68 St. Francis 66
St. Francis of Brooklyn made a habit this year of waiting for Ray Minlend to explode and take control of a game. Last night in the Northeast Conference semifinals, that spurt never came.
No one else could hit a shot when the Terriers needed it and they were upset by Mount St. Mary’s (Md.) 68-66.
Mount St. Mary’s will face Central Connecticut State, which beat the University of Maryland-Baltimore County 82-72 in the other semifinal – tonight for the championship at the Spiro Sports Complex at Wagner College.
St. Francis (20-8, No. 2 seed in the NEC) was down 67-66 with 11 seconds left and the ball in Minlend’s hands. As he started towards the basket, Mt. St. Mary’s (14-14, No. 6) sent a double-team his way and Minlend (16 points) dished to a wide-open Angel Santana.
Santana had been abandoned by the double-team, but his three-pointer bounced off the front rim. St. Francis’ Richy Dominguez pulled down the rebound, but couldn’t muster much of a shot and the game was over.
“I was open,” Santana said. “I thought it was going in. I blew it, I guess.”
Santana has made that shot many times before, but he hit just two of eight last night. As for Mt. St. Mary’s, head coach Jim Phelan was surprised by the game’s final moments.
“I thought for sure Minlend would take the last shot,” Phelan said. “That’s why we doubled him. It worked.”
The 69-year-old coach sat in the press conference at the Spiro Center, his omnipresent bow tie off and his top button undone.
“When we built the seven-point lead, I thought we might ease away and not have a win that puts a coach in his grave,” said Phelan, who will be going for his 800th career victory tonight. “It didn’t turn out that way.”
Not at all. Neither team led by more than three points for the last 7:44. Minlend made sure of that.
The senior guard, who is second in the country in scoring, struggled throughout much of the game, but he continued to get his hands on the ball and get to the free throw line. Minlend’s driving layup with 49 seconds left gave the Terriers their final lead.
But Mount St. Mary’s guard Eric Bethel banked in a layup for the game-winner with 28 seconds left.
“They were putting a lot of pressure on the perimeter,” Bethel said. “I knew I could beat [Greg Nunn] and it was now or never.”
Nunn took responsibility for allowing the shot.
“I gambled and went to the passing lane,” Nunn said. “I went right past him. It was a mental breakdown on my part.”
St. Francis head coach Ron Ganulin took the loss in stride.
“It’s heart-breaking, but it was a hard-fought game,” Ganulin said. “We won a lot of close games like this one this year. This one we didn’t get.”
It was almost literally heart-breaking for Phelan.
“This goes to show you, championships aren’t won in November when we were struggling,” the Mount’s Gregory Harris said.
“What are you trying to do, kill me?” Phelan asked.
Most coaches would likely accept such threats.
In the earlier semifinal, CCSU used a ferocious man-to-man defense and the overwhelming inside presence of Corsley Edwards (23 points, 13 rebounds) to pull off a stunningly convincing upset.
CCSU (19-12, No. 4) finished 4-22 last year and was widely picked to finish eighth in the conference this season, but the Blue Devils manhandled the normally tough UMBC (19-9, No. 1) squad, outrebounding it 47-31.
The Blue Devils were also able to contain Kennedy Okafor, who scored a career-high 22 points in UMBC’s quarterfinal win over Wagner Friday, holding him to 10 points.
“It all comes down to rebounding and defense,” CCSU head coach Howie Dickenman said. “I know I always say it, but it’s true.”