As the confetti fell and his teammates hugged, jumped and screamed at half-court, Drury guard Alex Hall couldn’t help but get choked up. Not in a good way, either.
“It was good until I swallowed about three pieces of confetti and I about threw up all over the court,” Hall said. “I was starting to gag. Everyone was, like, Yeah! And I’m like, Back up! Back up!”
For much of the game nothing quite went as expected or planned for the Drury Panthers, who caught Metro State in the game’s waning seconds to win the Division II championship 74-73 at Philips Arena. The team from the Springfield, Mo., school had led for all of 46 seconds before Hall made two free throws with 22.8 seconds remaining to take the final lead.
“It’s what we wanted since day one,” said Hall, an All-America who scored a game-high 21 points despite intense defensive attention. “I never thought it’d be like this, this feeling. It’s a great feeling, and we’ve got a great group of guys and a great coaching staff and I wouldn’t want it with anybody else.”
Hall was fouled collecting a rebound off a Metro State free throw taken with 24.2 seconds remaining. Metro State forward Nicholas Kay had a chance to put the Roadrunners up by three, but his first attempt of a one-and-one bounced high off the back heel.
“Once I saw that ball come off, I just took off,” said Hall, named the Division II tournament’s most outstanding player. “I was like, There’s no one getting this ball but me.”
Metro State, from Denver, missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the final 25.3 seconds – Kay went to the line when he was fouled after he rebounded Brandon Jefferson’s errant free throw – that could have altered the outcome had they been successful. The Roadrunners failed to score in the final 3:50, letting the Panthers rally from a 73-67 deficit. They were unable to capitalize on a superior defensive performance in which they forced 19 turnovers. Metro State led by as many 17 points as they controlled the glass and repeatedly scored in transition before Drury recovered in the second half.
“Drury got the job done and they kept fighting and made plays at the end there, simple as that,” Metro State coach Derrick Clark said. “It was a heck of a national championship, and that’s what it should be.”
With free attendance on Final Four weekend as a lure – this was the first occasion in which the Division II and III championships were contested in the same city as the Division I championship – Philips drew 7,763, the highest Division II championship-game attendance since 1971. Perhaps a third of the crowd wore Drury red, including perhaps 400 screaming students behind one of the baskets.
“I’ve never played in anything like this before, it was so packed,” Drury guard Drake Patterson said.
Players and coaches raved about the experience, which included being presented at the Georgia Dome floor during the Louisville-Wichita State game. Players walked out onto the court recording the scene on their cameras and lived it up in suites.
“We’ve been getting the treatment,” Patterson said. “It’s been nice. Police escorts and great meals and the Final Four games. … I think all that stuff’s going to be something we never forget.”
Drury finished the season on a 23-game winning streak and a 31-4 record for its first national championship. Metro State ended the season 32-3. The Roadrunners, whose starters played all but 15 of the team’s minutes, were led by Jefferson’s 19 points and 14 points and nine rebounds by forward Jonathan Morse.
It was a mesmerizing cap to Hall’s career, a four-year starter. Hall grew up in Springfield, and passed up Division I offers to stay home and play at Drury, which counts Bob Barker, longtime “The Price of Right” host, among its alumni and former basketball players. Hall, the school’s all-time leader in 3-pointers, has a familiar backstory with a slight twist. He honed his jump shot not on his driveway, but at the indoor half-court at his mother’s house. He used a rebounding apparatus to try to practice 500 shots a day.
It paid off Sunday, as he sank four of seven 3-point attempts, the last over the arms of 6-foot-8 center Nicholas Kay, who had six inches on the 6-2 Hall.
Back to the confetti.
“Once I hocked those up, the feeling was back,” he said. “It was great.”
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