skip navigation

NCAA Tournament: Saint Peter's makes history in South Philly

03/26/2022, 1:15am EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)

PHILADELPHIA — The Wells Fargo Center has seen its share of NCAA Tournament history.

It was back in 2013 that No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast became the first-ever team from that seed to win two games on opening weekend, ‘Dunk City’ going national in the span of three days as the high-flyin’ Eagles topped Georgetown and San Diego State to make March Madness history.

Nine years and one day later, Saint Peter’s did them one better.

The darlings of the 2022 Division I men’s basketball tournament became the first-ever No. 15 seed to advance to the Elite 8, downing Purdue 67-64 before a sold-out crowd at Wells Fargo on Friday night. 

They’re the biggest Cinderella story in NCAA Tournament history, a win from the Final Four, every bit deserving to be there. And acting like it.

“We're happy — but don't mistake, we're not satisfied,” junior guard Doug Edert said. “We're not satisfied at all. The job is not finished.”

Saint Peter's Jaylen Murray (32) and Latrell Reid (0) celebrate the Peacocks' win over Purdue on Friday night. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

The Peacocks — on National Peacock Day, no less — never flinched against the No. 3 seed in the East Regional, staying within six points of the Boilermakers even at their lowest point, then making their Big Ten opponents look like the underdogs during the stretch run.

The building was filled with Saint Peter’s fans, both of the lifelong variety and those that picked the Peacocks up within the last week, not to mention all the North Carolina and UCLA fans rooting for the underdog, each hoping their program would win the second game of the doubleheader and face the tiny school from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in the Elite 8.

They ought to be careful what they wish for, because these Peacocks aren’t afraid of anybody.

“It’s amazing,” said Edert, the mustache-sporting guard, who knocked down two foul shots with four seconds left for the final and most clutch of his 10 points, the final tallies of the game. “We had a great crowd today — the whole environment was just unreal. 

“I don’t think any of us were nervous or cared how many people were there watching us, we just did our thing.”

“Growing up playing basketball as a kid, you dream of moments like this,” junior guard Darryl Banks III said. “It's just a very wonderful feeling to have everybody supporting us and just being there for us. It helps us with this run, and it's just amazing.”

Saint Peter’s was only the third team to ever make it into the Sweet 16 after starting in the No. 15 spot, following FGCU and Oral Roberts, which did it last year. That they did it as this small Catholic school in Jersey City (N.J.) had many calling them the most unlikely Cinderella of all, one which missed nearly a month in the middle of the season due to COVID and sported a 12-11 overall record just a month ago.

Now they’ve won 10 in a row, more than any other team remaining, fully convinced they could be the ones cutting down the nets in New Orleans in early April.


Matthew Lee (above) made two foul shots with under 45 seconds to play. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

“We know we're just as good as any team in the country,” junior guard Matthew Lee said. “As long as we stick to our game, play defense, and give it 100 percent, we feel like we can hang with anybody.”

The Peacocks (22-11) locked down the Boilermakers (29-8), holding the Big Ten runner-ups to 5-of-21 (23.8%) from beyond the arc while forcing 15 turnovers, preventing Purdue from ever really getting in a good offensively flow or rhythm. Star guard Jaden Ivey finished with nine points on 4-of-12 shooting, and 7-4 sophomore Zach Edey committed five turnovers in his 16 minutes.

Trevion Williams went for 16 points and eight rebounds, including 14 after halftime, but nobody else on Purdue made enough noise to back him up.

“We knew their tendencies and what they did,” Banks said. “We knew they were also going to go inside a lot with the height difference with us. But we just stuck to our defensive principles, executed when we needed to, and it worked out for us.”

Saint Peter’s mustered up just enough points to get it done. Banks III led the way with 14 points, including consecutive buckets with three minutes left to turn a two-point deficit into a two-point advantage, the final lead change of the game. Lee only had seven but they felt like 15, including a game-tying 3-pointer in the latter stages of the second half.

Nine Peacocks in total joined the scoring column, a fairly standard effort for head coach Shaheen Holloway’s group.

By the final seconds, when it became clear that all in attendance were indeed about to see history, Wells Fargo shook with anticipation, the Saint Peter’s players if only so briefly dropping their steely facade to celebrate in the way they deserved.

Holloway shot Edert a look at the post-game press conference when he found out his junior guard had jumped up on a press conference table, prompting Edert to quickly say “next question” midway through his description of how someone cleared off some space for him to do so.

The coach shortly afterwards was called out for getting the crowd into it, saying “I don't normally do stuff like that,” but the former Seton Hall standout can be forgiven after getting further in the tournament as a coach than he did as a player.

The Peacocks will face North Carolina on Sunday in the first-ever Elite 8 appearance by a MAAC team, unexplored territory ahead just waiting to be discovered.

“We're making history,” Edert said, “and we look forward to making more history.”


D-I Coverage:

HS Coverage:

Small-College News:

Tag(s): Home  Josh Verlin  College  Division I