A season ended Friday night the way others have ended in DePaul’s past. It ended suddenly, with blank looks on the faces of Blue Demons who suddenly were trapped in an awkward and torturous place, somewhere between what they had accomplished and what easily could have been.
The Demons were on their way to their first NCAA tournament victory since 1989 when they unsuccessfully confronted the limitations that have became an unflattering trait. But Friday, they allowed Kansas to overcome a six-point deficit in overtime in what became an 81-77 Jayhawk victory.
DePaul (21-12) scored one point in the last 3 minutes 29 seconds of overtime, one foul shot in nine possessions. Kansas (24-9) extended its streak of first-round NCAA victories to 17 since its last defeat in 1978.
Quentin Richardson, who scored 13 of his 21 points after spraining his left ankle with 12:09 to play in the first half, missed a potential game-winning shot with 2 seconds to play in regulation time.
And although isolating Richardson at the offensive end became more difficult because of his ankle problem, the Demons found him once more at the end of overtime.
“We needed to get him those opportunities,” said DePaul coach Pat Kennedy.
Richardson’s attempted game-tying three-point shot with 3 seconds to play in overtime was deflected by Nick Bradford, and DePaul’s last best chance was gone.
The Demons made 4 of 12 free throws in the last 8:53. They committed four turnovers in the last 3:10 of overtime. They created an opening for a Kansas team that had endured its own struggle.
So when the last DePaul lead was gone forever and the time had come to leave, Paul McPherson thought about the frustration.
“It has sort of been an enigma for us all year, last-second collapses,” said McPherson, who scored 21 points but had just one foul shot in the last 9:50. “Cincinnati, and a few other games. We just have a tendency to get relaxed at the end of games, once we’re up, and lose focus and lose concentration.”
Their lack of attention to detail suddenly became the memory that will chase the Demons into the spring and summer. Not the sight of Richardson’s steely-eyed assertiveness at the start, when he scored DePaul’s first eight points, including two drives to the basket.
Not the anger in his face after he stepped on a foot of one of the Jayhawks, fell to the ground, and quickly jumped up and raced across the floor as if he could keep the pain away. “I felt like I had a rhythm going,” Richardson said. “And it was like, `Now this.'”
The tone in his voice as he remembered was far more mild than the disgust that appeared on Richardson’s face. That look turned to frequent winces as he hopped to compensate for the pain.
“I rolled it real bad,” Richardson said. “I really couldn’t get real explosive going either way. If I tried to push off my foot it was weak.”
Still, the Demons put themselves in position for a first-round victory that could have erased most, if not all, of their past frustrations. This time it was the Jayhawks who appeared to break down in overtime.
“I even got down on my knees in the huddle,” said Roy Williams, the Kansas coach, “and begged them for a defensive stop five times in a row. And they did.”
The Kansas comeback started after Bobby Simmons, who scored 14 points with 15 rebounds, stepped out of bounds after grabbing a rebound with 2:08 to go in overtime. Jeff Boschee then made his only three-pointer of the game to cut the Demons’ lead to three with 1:57 to play. After a free throw by Nick Collison, Kenny Gregory of the Jayhawks stole a pass from Rashon Burno and drove for a game-tying score with 56.7 seconds to play.
Bradford sliced for a driving score with 47.4 seconds to go, and the Jayhawks were ahead to stay.
“There is not a depression from the way we played,” Kennedy said. “There is a little depression from the way we couldn’t close.”
