ST. LOUIS (AP) — Santa Clara thought it had knocked Kentucky out of the NCAA Tournament when freshman Allen Graves answered a tying basket by Wildcats star Otega Oweh with a 3-pointer in front of his own bench with 2.4 seconds left in regulation.
The problem for the Broncos: There were still 2.4 seconds left in regulation.
As coach Herb Sendek tried to call timeout, Kentucky quickly got the ball into the hands of Oweh, who raced across the midcourt
line and heaved up a 3-pointer, which banked through the bucket to tie the game at 73-all. The buzzer sounded when the ball was in midair.
The kind of shot that puts the madness into March Madness didn't exactly end Santa Clara's postseason hopes — that didn't come until Kentucky scored eight consecutive points in OT to pull away. But the sequence of shots in those wild last few seconds of regulation will be remembered much longer than the 89-84 final score Friday, which sent the No. 7 seed Wildcats into a matchup with No. 2 seed Iowa State or No. 15 seed Tennessee State in the Midwest Region.
“You know,” Sendek said afterward, “it was a really euphoric high followed by a tough one to swallow.”
The No. 10 seed Broncos certainly gave everything they had — everything built up over the 30 years since Steve Nash last led them to the NCAA Tournament — in trying to knock off one of college basketball's bluebloods inside the packed Enterprise Center.
The game was tied 12 times. The lead changed hands 20 times. Santa Clara led by two at halftime as the West Coast Tournament runner-up went toe-to-toe with Kentucky, which was making its record-extending 63rd NCAA Tournament appearance.
Yet the first 59 minutes merely set the stage for the dramatic conclusion.
It began when Oweh, who scored a career-high 35 points, tied the game at 70-all with a runner in the lane with 9.9 seconds left. Sendek, who'd spent a decade trying to get the Broncos back to the NCAA tourney, chose to let the game play out rather than call timeout, and it looked like a wise move when Graves took a pass from Sash Gavalyugov and drilled his 3 from the wing.
“I just tried to get myself in action and give myself a chance to make a play," Graves said. "As soon as I got the ball, I knew that God willing, the ball was going to go in.”
The clock stopped at 2.4 for a fraction of a second.
“I unequivocally called timeout,” Sendek said, “but they didn't grant it. I think the video evidence was clear, and anybody is able to pull it up. Which is a likely response after Allen hits the 3 that the coach would be calling timeout to set the defense, which I tried to do, and was successful in doing, other than it wasn’t acknowledged or recognized.”
The clock began rolling again as Kentucky inbounded the ball. Oweh raced across the half-court line, elevated right in front of Wildcats coach Mark Pope, and knocked through another shot that will go down in NCAA Tournament history.
“I was just trying to get the ball out quick, and get as close as I could to the goal. I was looking at the clock the whole time,” said Oweh, whose older brother, Odafe Oweh, is an edge rusher for the Washington Commanders. “It was really just trying to get a shot off, and not let the season end.”
Santa Clara recovered to lead twice early in overtime. But Oweh's foul shots with just over a minute left in the extra session gave the Wildcats an 81-79 lead, and Brandon Garrison provided a pair of crucial blocks from there, keeping Gavalyugov and the rest of the Broncos from getting off the 3-point looks it needed to avoid going home.
“We worked day-in and day-out in practice. We competed every day. I’m glad we got what we deserved, getting to come here and play in March Madness,” Graves said. “I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m just happy to be here and get to do it with these guys.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
