HAIL YES!!! :Alabama State earns first-ever NCAA tourney win with last-second bucket
Alabama State players celebrate the winning shot against St. Francis in the First Four game in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday. (Courtesy Alabama State media relations)
By GRAHAM DUNN
DAYTON, OHIO - There have been many football games decided on a “Hail Mary” pass in the closing seconds.
The Alabama State Hornets proved it works in basketball, too.
Amarr Knox grabbed a loose ball and dropped in a layup with less than a second remaining to hand the Alabama State it’s first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament, defeating the Saint Francis (PA) Red Flash 70-68 in the First Four round at University of Dayton Arena on Tuesday.
The win sends the Hornets (20-15) into the first round of the South Regional to face top seed Auburn on Thursday in Lexington.
“(I’m) proud of these guys,” stated ASU coach Tony Madlock. “We didn’t play very well but we talk about finding a way. And we did tonight.”
Trailing by five at halftime, the Hornets stayed within striking distance before taking the lead with 4:24 remaining on C.J. Hines’ 3-pointer to make it 62-60, ASU. The Hornets held on to the lead until the final seconds when St. Francis tied the game on a 3-pointer from Chris Moncrief with 40 seconds left.
That eventually set up the winning basket in the final seconds. The Hornets had to in-bound a pass from the opposite end of the floor. Micah Simpson threw a baseball pass to the Hornets’ basket. It was tipped and gathered by Knox who laid it in with just under a second left.
“We wanted to throw the ball long and put our tallest athletic person to go get the ball,” Knox said. “It landed to me and I made the layup. But I couldn’t do it without my teammates. The execution is what we work on all the time and it worked.”
When asked why it Simpson was chosen, the answer had come in previous practices.
“He’s the one throwing it in practice every day so he’s used to that pass,” said senior guard Anthony “TJ” Madlock.
“Trial and error,” Tony Madlock added. “We spend a lot of time, especially on game day, on situational stuff, 10-12 minutes. Once we got on ‘Deuce,’ he started throwing it. He became the guy who threw that pass.”
“He makes that pass on the money, all the time,” stated Knox.
Simpson wasn’t sure he would ever get the chance to try the pass in a game. but he made the most of his first try.
“When it left my hand I was like, it was close to the rim so I know we’ve got a chance. Once I saw Amarr grab it, I knew it was over with,” he said. “We work on it every day in practice. It works every time. Usually, we shoot 3s off of it but we’ll take a layup for the win.”
The Hornets had been in a similar situation on a couple of occasions leading to their berth in the tournament. Twice in one week, they needed a last second shot to win against both Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman.
Once the last-second shot worked while the other time, it didn’t. but neither were off a court-length pass.
“We’ve been in that situation two times this year,” T.J. Madlock said. “We knew we had to fly around. We stayed positive. We had to be aggressive.”
The Hornets placed three players in double figures, led by Knox, who had 16 points and two steals. T.J. Madlock added 11 points and seven rebounds and CJ Hines chipped in 10 points.
Alabama State forced 15 Saint Francis turnovers while committing only six in Tuesday's game. The Hornets turned those takeaways into 26 points.
Alabama State had a 35-33 edge on the boards with 12 coming on the offensive end.
Ironically, the Hornets did not shoot their first free throw until midway through the second half.TJ Madlock had a chance to give the Hornets the lead with just over 40 seconds left but missed on both ends.
The win was a first for the Hornets’ program, which made its first trip to the NCAA Tourney back in 2001. Tony Madlock admitted he will savor the moment, at least until his team arrives in Lexington to face Auburn.
“We will have stories forever…,” he said. “First time to get a win in a tournament game. We got to 20 wins and you know how hard that is for HBCU schools. We have to play those money games early but for us to just fight and fight and fight and find a way to 20 wins it means so much to our program, to the city of Montgomery and to Alabama State, we just want to make that city proud.
“I will figure that out (tonight) how all this feels. We will have this bus ride and we get to play in Lexington and how can you beat that? To play in a place like Rupp Arena, you can’t beat that.”