CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two years ago, St. Peter’s University achieved a dream in the NCAA Tournament.
Two years after its magical run to the Elite Eight as a No. 15 seed, St. Peter’s survived a nightmare Thursday night with an 83-49 win over Tennessee in its NCAA opener. 2nd seed in the Midwest Region, Spectrum Center.
The 15th-seeded Peacocks never played in a game against a much better Volunteers team that advanced to Saturday’s second-round game against Texas.
The first half was an unimaginable disaster for St. Peter’s, which got here by winning the MAAC tournament title. St. Peter’s trailed 46-20, but only because of Roy Clark’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer that “cut” Tennessee’s lead to “just” 26 points at intermission. .
Tennessee’s largest lead in the first half was 29 points, which was scored by Clark Trey just before the end of the period.
St. Peter’s (19-14) was 7-of-30 from the field (23.3 percent) and 4-of-15 from long range (26.7 percent) in the first half. The Peacocks couldn’t even make free throws, shooting just 2-of-7 from the line.
Meanwhile, Tennessee (25-8) shot 16-of-25 from the floor (64%) and 4-of-9 from 3-point range.
The Vols outscored St. Peter’s 25-11 in the first half and finished with a 47-21 advantage on the boards.
St. Peter’s three starters didn’t score a point in the first 20 minutes.
Corey Washington, who entered the game averaging a team-high 16.5 points, finished with just two points on 0-of-5 field goals and 1-of-9 shooting en route to the donut.
Michael Fuge averaged 8.5 points per game and was 1-of-8 from the field. And Mohamed Sou had 1 hit in 5 at bats.
The only player to perform for St. Peter’s was senior guard Latrell Reed, the only player remaining on the Elite Eight team. He scored nine points in the first half (almost half of the Peacocks’ points) and finished with a team-high 17 points.
St. Peter’s came into the game challenged offensively as one of the production teams in the country with the least offensive power and relies heavily on a tenacious defense. But this kind of anemic production was spectacular.
I have to credit this again to Tennessee’s defense, which completely suffocated the diminutive Peacocks.
St. Peter’s coach Bashir Mason had a hunch that Tennessee’s defense was in trouble.
“I’ve been telling my team that we’re probably a version of them in terms of how we defend and how we rebound, but they probably have some NBA players on their team,” Mason said. . “The size, the athleticism… everything is a little different.”
Mason also had concerns about Dalton Knecht, a 6-foot-6 guard from Tennessee. Knecht led the Vols with an average of 21.1 points per game.
Knecht scored 13 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 23 points.
“We’ve never played against a player like him,” Mason said before the game. “That will be the ultimate test for us.”
Tennessee’s 6-11 forward Jonas Aidoo has been a big problem for the Peacocks — and that’s very much by design. He had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the first half, finishing with 15 and six rebounds, but they had no answer for him.
St. Peter’s entered the game having allowed over 70 points to just seven opponents and was 1-6 in those games. Tennessee was over 70 points with seven minutes left.
Before the game, Reed talked about how St. Peter’s “definitely surprised everyone” two years ago.
“We still play the same way: team effort, hard defense, crushing teams, so I don’t think anyone is going to take us for a joke,” Reid said. “We know that. We still think we can compete with anyone.”
Listening to Tennessee coach Rick Barnes before the game, it was clear that St. Peter’s was paying close attention.
“I can tell you as a coaching staff, we’ve been telling our players here what a great opponent we’re going to play against at St. Peter’s,” Burns said. “They’re a tough team that knows how they play and what they do.”
But on this nightmarish night, St. Peter’s looked like a team that had no idea what to do. So we can’t bring back the magic of two years ago.
