Delonte Holland often jokes with his Blue Demons teammates at the end of practice, telling them just to get him the ball at game’s end and he’ll take care of things.
Friday night he did.
Holland, a 6-foot-7 inch senior, coolly nailed two free throws with 5.3 seconds left in overtime to carry DePaul to an exhausting, riveting 75-74 semifinal victory over Alabama-Birmingham and into the championship game of the Conference USA tournament at U.S. Bank Arena.
DePaul (21-8) has won 14 of its last 16 games and has its first six-game winning streak in nine years. The Blue Demons will meet Cincinnati Saturday in their first appearance in the title game in four years. The Bearcats had little trouble in beating St. Louis 66-46 in the other semifinal.
DePaul overcame the Blazers’ nasty press and a 16-point, second-half deficit and Holland was not about to waste the comeback. Not even when UAB (20-9) called time to ice him.
“I was just trying to keep calm,” said Holland, who scored a game-high 21 points. “We just came so far.”
The game included 18 lead changes–six in overtime after regulation ended 68-68–but the only reason the Blue Demons were positioned to win was because they refrained from the careless ballhandling that produced 20 turnovers in the first 30 minutes, none in the last 15.
On an occasion when rarely-used senior guard Chris Exilus was the man of the moment for his season-high eight points and Holland was the man of the hour, DePaul became the team of the day after it listened to the urgings of junior forward Quemont Greer.
Greer had 14 points and 10 rebounds, but fumbling teammates heeded him when he told them to shape up, and that contribution might have been more valuable.
“Quemont Greer is the heart and soul of this program right now,” coach Dave Leitao said. “I thought he gave us the greatest of intangibles today. This team has constantly shown tremendous heart. When we got down by big numbers, there was a critical time we were on the ropes.”
UAB, one of five league co-champions with DePaul, trapped and disrupted DePaul’s offense with guards Mo Finley (20 points) and Carldell Johnson (14 points, 11 assists) acting as pincers. The Blazers seemed ready for a runaway when a 37-29 halftime lead grew to 49-33.
Exilus, who has sat on the bench for entire games, keyed DePaul’s comeback with two three-pointers and Leitao called him “the ultimate team guy, the ultimate good soldier.”
Top-seeded DePaul outscored UAB 23-6 over an eight-minute-plus span, culminating when Holland made a rebound follow for a 56-55 lead. As usual, DePaul was superior on the glass, outrebounding UAB 42-27. The Blazers, however, only committed six turnovers and never wilted.
“In a game of that magnitude, it’s a shame someone had to lose,” UAB coach Mike Anderson said. “What a hard-fought game.”
The suspense escalated at the end of regulation when DePaul’s 68-63 lead dissolved in the last 1 1/2 minutes. But playing with discipline in the overtime, the Blue Demons, who were 22-for-28 from the line overall, made all seven of their points on free throws. Holland made the biggest ones.
“I knew he was going to make them,” freshman guard Sammy Mejia said. “He’s the type of guy who likes to be on the stage.”
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ON TV Conference USA final: DePaul vs. Cincinnati, 10:30 a.m., WBBM-Ch. 2
