Notre Dame’s tip beats SFA to reach Sweet 16
Rex Pflueger of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and teammates celebrate their 76-75 win over the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks during the second round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 20, 2016. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Rex Pflueger missed the tip-in. His team lost. He went home.
Pflueger was playing for Mater Dei in the California Interscholastic Federation semifinals, and “I always wished I got that back,” he said yesterday.
He did. Oh, did he ever.
After Zach Auguste couldn’t tip in Demetrius Jackson’s missed shot, Pflueger — inserted in the final seconds of a dizzy, relentlessly exciting matchup — tipped in the winning basket with 1.5 seconds left as sixth-seeded Notre Dame beat 14th- seeded Stephen F. Austin, 76-75, at a frenzied Barclays Center.
It was the 6-6 freshman’s first field goal since March 5 and his second offensive rebound of the game. Pretty good, considering the defensive specialist had eight offensive boards in his previous 27 games, averaging 2.5 points in that span.
Notre Dame will face seventh-seeded Wisconsin in the Sweet 16 on Friday night in Philadelphia. Jackson scored 18 points and Auguste had 16 points and 15 rebounds for Notre Dame (23-11), which shot 56.9 percent.
“Are you kidding me?” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said by way of opening statement. “Are you freaking kidding me? That was unbelievable.”
SFA (28-6) was down by seven with 9:08 to go and came back to lead by five with 2:05 left, thanks in large part to senior Thomas Walkup, who scored 21 points despite being limited to 27 minutes because of two early fouls.
After V.J. Beachem’s jumper gave the Irish a 62-55 lead, the largest by either team, Walkup went to work, completing a three-point play and later passing to Demetrious Floyd, who nailed a three from the top of the key to tie it at 64. Walkup scored four points in a 7-0 run that gave Stephen F. Austin a 75-70 lead.
Walkup “made himself great,” coach Brad Underwood said, tearing up. “How do you not fall in love with a kid like that? . . . He was a young man that couldn’t shoot, didn’t make threes . . . [the] work that that young man has put in, he’s made himself one of the elite players in college basketball.”
But Walkup’s magic, which upended third-seeded West Virginia in the first round, ran out in the final two minutes. SFA didn’t score for the rest of the game and struggled to keep up on the glass. A missed rebound with 1:41 left ended with a second-chance layup by Jackson,. cutting Notre Dame’s deficit to three. Clide Geffrard committed a ticky-tack foul on Jackson with 47 seconds left, and the two free throws got the Irish within one. Then, with 23 seconds left, Walkup missed a layup and Ty Charles missed the tip-in, leading to the winning possession.
“They made the stops they needed to make,” Underwood said. “It was no different than what we did to West Virginia. We put the ball in Tom’s hands, and I’ll do it again every single time. I’m going to live and die with that young man.”
Although the Lumberjacks, from Nacogdoches, Texas, didn’t become the third 14 seed ever to advance to the Sweet 16, they certainly burnished their national reputation in their third straight year in the tournament. Other than the Notre Dame cheering section, the crowd of 17,401 including a number of Villanova fans who stuck around after the early game, was yearning for some March Magic.
“That’s what this tournament is all about,” Walkup said. “For mid-majors to get here and beat high majors. That’s what makes fun, is the upsets.”
SFA didn’t quite finish the job, although Brey agreed the Lumberjacks made it special.
“God,” he said, grinning widely, “that was fun.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
