Sports

Henderson, Ole Miss ousted by La Salle in NCAA third round

KANSAS CITY — And just like that, Jesse James is gone.

Marshall Henderson, Ole Miss’ Old West villain, the sharpshooter with a sharper tongue, led the 12th-seeded Rebels with 21 points, but fell just short of reaching the Sweet 16 after La Salle’s tiny guard Tyrone Garland’s drive broke a tie with 2.3 seconds left, giving the 13th-seeded Explorers a 76-74 win last night at the Sprint Center.

With Henderson on the bench, pulled on the final possession for defensive reasons, Jarvis Summers missed a half-court heave as time expired, sending La Salle (24-9) to Los Angeles, where it will face No. 9 Wichita State in a West Region semifinal.

When Ole Miss’ locker room opened, Henderson, the show-stopping, showboating junior was reduced to a frail, skinny kid crying uncontrollably, with a T-shirt over his face.

“It just hurts so bad,” Henderson said. “I feel like it’s on my shoulders. I had the ball in my hands numerous times to make a play and I failed. It hurts for them, for the seniors. We should’ve won that game. We should be going to Los Angeles and I screwed it up. I screwed everybody over.”

Last weekend, La Salle was on the bubble, unsure it would even make the tournament, but after three games in five days, the Explorers are deeper than they have been in the NCAAs since 1955.

“We’re all a little bit numb because it’s such a close game, such a great accomplishment,” La Salle coach John Giannini said.

The Explorers’ Roman Galloway, who had a game-high 24 points said: “It just feels like AAU all over again. We play a game, go to sleep, wake up, play another game.”

Henderson had the ball with the game tied at 74, but after missing an off-balance banker with 33 seconds left, he grabbed his own rebound, attempted to put up another shot and was met with contact, but got no call as the shot clock expired.

“He fouled me. The ref told me he fouled me,” Henderson said. “He told me he’s not gonna call a foul with a second left on the shot clock. I told him that’s B.S. I don’t care if there’s .1 left on it, you gotta call a foul, especially when you told me it’s a foul. He took off my whole left arm.”

Ole Miss (27-9) had its chances to make its first Sweet 16 in 12 years, leading 69-64 with just over four minutes remaining. Then, up two with 1:11 left, Summers missed a wide-open 3-pointer. La Salle’s Tyreek Duren got the rebound, was fouled and tied the game with two free throws.

The Rebels struggled from the line, shooting 10-of-21, and didn’t take their first lead of the second half until a Murphy Holloway lay-in and Henderson 3-pointer gave them a 59-55 lead with less than nine minutes remaining. Henderson capped the spurt with a mock drag of a cigarette before miming flicking it to the floor to extinguish it. But the Explorers weren’t finished.

Galloway, who scored 19 points in the first half, outdueled Henderson, who shot 8-of-21, hitting five first-half 3-pointers to give La Salle a seven-point lead. Henderson’s last-second 3-pointer trimmed the deficit to 40-38 at halftime.

“You always got to give credit to a team that comes back, especially because we’ve been a team that’s come back this entire year,” Henderson said. “Galloway, he’s probably an NBA player. He extended us, knocked down shots. That’s what Sweet 16 teams do. They make plays.”

Henderson, who hit 4-of-15 3-pointers, didn’t hit his first until more than 10 minutes had passed, giving Ole Miss its least lead of the first half, 20-18, before breaking out his first “Landshark.”

He had no idea it would be his last.

howard.kussoy@nypost.com