ALBANY — One suffered a slow, agonizing demise. The other met the finish rather quickly.
How it happened didn’t matter. The pain of a 4½-month basketball season ending with the suddenness of a lightning bolt doesn’t go away easily.
In its first foray into March Madness in two decades, Albany welcomed two midwestern schools, Drake and Kent State, to the NCAA Tournament at MVP Arena. Two Friday night games — which didn’t finish until 12:43 a.m. Saturday morning — sent them home. Miami (Fla.) rallied to eliminate Drake. Indiana summarily dispatched Kent State.
“It takes a lot to survive,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said, “and we fortunately survived.”
The less fortunate will leave with crushed dreams and canceled hotel reservations.
Drake, which brought a raucous contingent of fans from Des Moines, Iowa, endured a lot. The Bulldogs of the Missouri Valley Conference were in full control of Miami, leading the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season champion for more than 28½ minutes.
The fifth-seeded Hurricanes abruptly gained strength, closing the game on a 16-1 run to avoid joining Purdue, Arizona and Virginia among high seeds that got planted.
“I’m disappointed for our group that we weren’t able to pull that out,” Drake coach Darian DeVries said after a 63-56 loss, “but I thought overall we played a really good 35, 37 minutes.”
The Bulldogs held ACC Player of the Year Isaiah Wong to five points on 1-for-10 shooting. They limited the Hurricanes to a season-low 30.4 percent from the field. Miami, seizing an advantage with a full-court press, forced Drake into four turnovers in the final four minutes.
“We had done a lot of things right up to that point,” DeVries said. “Give Miami credit for making some plays.”
The loss marked the end for one-time…
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