St. Peter’s loses to North Carolina in the East Regional final

The best story of March ended Sunday night inside the Wells Fargo Center with 81 seconds left in St. Peter’s 69-49 loss to North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional final. The Peacocks — the first 15th seed to reach the Elite Eight — subbed five players off the court, signaling that the dream had finally ended.

At first, Daryl Banks III said they were crushed as they walked off the court. The tiny commuter school from Jersey City expected to upset the eighth-seeded Tar Heels the same way they stunned No. 2 seed Kentucky and No. 3 seed Purdue. The Final Four against Duke in a 70,000-seat football stadium was next.

Instead, their run ended abruptly. It was too much to ask for the Peacocks — a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team that plays its home games in a no-frills gym just big enough to hold their entire student population of roughly 3,000 — to topple another college hoops powerhouse.

And then their coach told Banks and his teammates as they left the court to keep their spirits up, reminding them that they had accomplished something no team had before. Yes, they were overpowered. Yes, they were outmatched. But the Peacocks, Banks said, were leaving Philadelphia with their heads held high.

“They shocked the world,” St. Peter’s coach Shaheen Holloway said. “You have guys that are going to be remembered for things that they could tell their kids and grandkids. It’s a story within a story. I’m super proud of these guys. They came in and made history. Point-blank, period. No one has done it. St. Peter’s did it. Period. St. Peter’s made it to the Elite Eight. Great story.”

The undersized Peacocks found a way to keep pace with Kentucky and Purdue, but North Carolina proved to be far different.

They failed to match up against Armando Bacot, the 6-foot-10 forward who scored 20 points and grabbed 15 of his 22 rebounds in the first half. No player dominated St. Peter’s like that, Holloway said. They could not slow Caleb Love, who scored 14 points and provided the finishing touch with a powerful one-handed slam late in the second half. And any momentum the Peacocks could gather seemed to cede with each of Brady Manek’s four three-pointers en route to 19 points.

The Tar Heels will face Duke on Saturday night in the Final Four as the rivals meet in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever. Three weeks ago, they spoiled Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game by dropping the retiring coach’s team at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. On Saturday, they’ll have a chance to send Coach K into retirement.

The winner of Duke-North Carolina advances to Monday’s final against the winner of Villanova-Kansas. The Final Four features four of the nation’s elite programs who hold a combined 17 NCAA titles. No Cindereralls this year. Not anymore.

“They hang their hat on punching teams in the mouth, being the underdog, that kind of thing,” North Carolina guard Leaky Black said of the Peacocks. “We just had to let them know it wasn’t going to happen tonight. That’s pretty much it.”

There were just five college teams remaining when the game began on Sunday: Villanova, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, and St. Peter’s. The hard-nosed team from hardscrabble Jersey City ended its magical season by standing alone with basketball’s blue bloods.

But it did not take long on Sunday to see that the wave St. Peter’s rode to the Elite Eight had finally reached the shore. The Peacocks missed their first six shots and were down by nine before they scored a point.

“I feel like we came out a little slow,” foward KC Ndefo said. “Our defensive intensity wasn’t up to par today. But like coach said, we give a lot of credit to them. They’re a talented team, but today was on us.”

It took St. Peter’s nearly 15 minutes to score 10 points as they struggled to keep pace, their magic running thin. They missed layups. They missed threes. They missed dunks. For the first time this month, they were overmatched.

“I didn’t really recognize my team the first 10 minutes of the game,” Holloway said. “I thought we came out a little slow, a little timid. Give those guys credit, they came in and jumped on us early. … I kind of wish we could play this game over. I would have done a couple things differently. But like I said, you’ve got to give those guys credit. They came out and they deserved it.

“I wasn’t great today. I really disappointed myself. Have to make some more adjustments. I’m really not happy with that.”

The Peacocks made it to Elite Eight with a roster of players who were overlooked by bigger programs. Many of the players — like North Philadelphia’s Clarence Rupert — enrolled at the Jesuit commuter school because it was their only chance to play Division I basketball.

The odds were long for the Peacocks, but they followed their coach, a smooth-talking New Yorker who was an even smoother point guard two decades ago at Seton Hall.

“Coach established the vision that he had,” Banks said. “All of us went on board with that vision. We knew if we put in the hard work, that anything was possible. So we came to work every day, day in, day out. And it just paid off for us this year. We did something historical.”

Holloway became the breakout star of March after keeping his team together through a four-week pause in December due to a COVID breakout and arriving Sunday on a 10-game winning streak. He’s expected to be hired soon by Seton Hall, which can offer him a lucrative contract that small-budgeted St. Peter’s won’t be able to match.

“I’m not worried about that right now,” Holloway said. “I’m worried about those 15 young men whose hearts are broken and really down. It’s my job as their leader to cheer them up, make sure they understand what they did the last two weeks. And like I said, we’re going to walk out of here the same way we walked in here, with our head up.”

A little more than an hour before tipoff, the St. Peter’s players ran through drills under the guide of a few assistant coaches while North Carolina — the team who plays in a 21,000 seat arena and trains in a lavish practice facility — warmed up on the other end.

Carolina’s court was crowded with people as the Tar Heels had athletic trainers armed with foam rollers and resistance bands. A team photographer snapped photos and a videographer captured every move. Nearly 10 assistants, each wearing identical blue pullovers, kept watch as the players — most of whom were superstar recruits in high school — readied for the game.

The arena was still empty, but soon the kids from North Jersey would run into one of college basketball’s juggernauts. The Cinderella story was about to write its final chapter.

“What we did was amazing,” Ndefo said. “And this is a brotherhood. Words can’t describe what we did out there. And just to be happy for each other. And for us to be the only team to do this. It’s just historical. And we’re blessed for that.”