KANSAS CITY, Mo. — La Salle shocked a crazed crowd at the Sprint Center, but not before nearly being stunned itself.
The 13th-seeded Explorers came close to implosion after blowing an 18-point halftime lead over fourth-seeded Kansas State, and trailed by one with less than three minutes remaining. But the underdogs out of the Atlantic 10 Conference held on for the upset in hostile territory after Jerrell Wright hit three free throws in the final 30 seconds, taking a 63-61 win yesterday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament’s West Region.
After Wright’s free throw with 9.6 seconds left, Kansas State’s Angel Rodriguez ran down the court and threw up a shot from the wing as time expired, but it didn’t come close. The Wildcats didn’t score in the final 4:54.
La Salle (23-9) will meet 12th-seeded Mississippi tomorrow, having won two straight tournament games for the first time since finishing as runner-up in the 1955 NCAA Tournament.
“You’re not going to shake us,” said La Salle’s Rohan Brown. “We don’t care what environment we play in. We knew they would come out and give us their best shot and that we would have to make a stand.”
Playing their second game in three days, having arrived from Dayton early Thursday, La Salle (23-9) showed no fatigue in the first half, never trailing and leading by as many as 19 points after shooting 58.1 percent from the field behind guard Roman Galloway, who scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half.
The Explorers committed only two turnovers in the half, taking a 44-26 lead into the break, but the Wildcats (27-8) clawed their way back into the game with a 17-5 run to start the second half, sparked by intense, physical defense and a crowd that made it feel like 18,000 against five.
La Salle looked tight. The offense became stilted and awkward and it seemed as if there was no amount of timeouts that could have killed Kansas State’s momentum.
“In the second half, we guarded like a team and coach [Bruce Weber] asked us to just keep fighting and we did that for the most part,” said guard Shane Southwell, who tied Jordan Henriquez with a team-high 17 points. “When we started coming back and we [led by] one or two, in my head I was thinking to myself that we need to get this to five or six or seven.”
The Explorers needed to be efficient from the line, hitting 12 of 14 in the second half and never trailing by more than two despite being held to 3-of-18 shooting from the fieldafter halftime.
With Kansas State leading 61-60 with 32 seconds left, Rodney McGruder had a 3-pointer rattle in and out and Wright was fouled after grabbing the rebound. After hitting both free throws, Wright was fouled on another rebound, after Henriquez missed a jumper with 13 seconds left.
The La Salle forward ended with a game-high 21 points and McGruder’s and Henriquez’s college careers were finished.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world,” McGruder said. “It just hurts to go out the way we did.”