”I used to think it just took 100 percent work to advance at this point,” said St. John`s forward Matt Brust. ”Now I think it`s 90 percent work and 10 percent luck.”
The Redmen wouldn`t say luck was the only thing that carried De Paul to its 83-75 overtime victory Sunday. But, as Brust and others noted, the Blue Demons sure got a lot of breaks.
”The Vincentian fathers up there must have been saying a lot of prayers,” said Brust. ”I`ll say one thing, though. It took a lot guts for Dallas Comegys to go up there and miss a free throw to try and get the ball back.”
Comegys` purposely-missed foul shot with 12 seconds left, resulting in a tying basket by De Paul to set up the overtime, was just one of several breaks the St. John`s players talked about following their heartbreaking defeat.
There was guard Mark Jackson, one of the Redmen`s surest shooters, missing a 10-footer at the end of a regulation–a shot similar to the one teammate Marco Baldi had sunk Friday to beat Wichita.
”It was a good shot, a shot I`ve made lots of times, and it just didn`t go in,” Jackson said.
Early in the overtime, there was a controversial offensive goaltending call against St. John`s that led to an important De Paul basket by Kevin Edwards.
”I wasn`t really sure what happened on that,” said forward Willie Glass, who was on the floor at the time. ”I thought maybe a De Paul player had a hand on it. I really didn`t see. I`m no referee.”
Then, shortly after that call, Jackson was whistled for charging, another costly turnover. ”It could have gone either way,” he said.
All of those plays sent St. John`s coach Lou Carnesecca into multiple gyrations on the sideline, but afterward the 62-year-old coach refused to discuss any details.
”This will be difficult to forget, but I`m sure there will be other games like this,” he said. ”But for the old coach, this one hit kind of hard.
”You have to give De Paul credit, though. They were able to take advantage of everything they got. I like this De Paul club very much. I said it yesterday: They`re a good mixture.”
This was the first time in five years that De Paul and St. John`s hadn`t played during the regular season. Sunday`s regional victory gave the Demons an 8-4 lead in the overall series and left coach Joey Meyer 2-1 against St. John`s.
Asked what he thought about De Paul`s tournament future, Carnesseca said: ”I`ll let somebody else answer that. It doesn`t concern me anymore.”
