City of Basketball Love

Sean Kramer (@SKramerWrites)
--

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Nobody was going to tell Isaiah Miles to calm down. He knows what he saw. Octavius Ellis apparently nullified Miles’ cold-blooded game-winning trey from seconds earlier with a baseline dunk at the buzzer.

But he saw the replay. He was hyping everybody up on the bench. Saint Joseph’s had a 78-76 win in the bag and a date with Oregon on Sunday.

Meanwhile, DeAndre’ Bembry took the chill wait-and-see route while sitting on the bench.

“I was sitting on the bench just relaxing, chilling to see what the call was,” Bembry said. “Isaiah was just yelling at everybody. So it was different mixed emotions.”

Ellis attempted a two-hand slam at the buzzer which would’ve sent the contest into overtime. Had he laid it off the glass or let go above the cylinder, the Hawks surely would’ve had to survive another five-minute onslaught from the Bearcats.

He tried to slam it, and barely left a fingertip on the ball as the buzzer sounded even though the ball was halfway down.

“In a small way, I wish it hadn’t ended like that,” St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli said. “I wish it had ended with Isaiah making the three and us getting a stop. But, at least from what I could see it was the right call.”

Who else would hit the game-winning shot for St. Joe’s? Bembry? Nah, he was too busy shaking off his 20-point first half and giving his teammates shine in the second half.

Cincinnati had all the momentum when Jacob Evans two-hand slammed on the baseline with 15 seconds left to give the ‘Cats a 76-75 lead.

Martelli called a play with 16 seconds left, likely intending to bleed the clock and give St. Joe’s the game-winning dagger. But Bembry sped the process up.

“I had the sneaking suspicion that DeAndre’ would throw the ball back to Isaiah and want Isaiah to figure out a way to get the ball in the air,” Martelli said.

All Miles did was drain the first game-winning shot of his basketball career.

“It’s just an amazing feeling,” Miles said. “I definitely want to credit DeAndre’ for looking for me … The guys reacted off the pick … I’ve been practicing that since seventh grade and middle school. So just step into the shot and make the shot.”

Minutes earlier Bembry found Aaron Brown for a huge trey to give St. Joe’s a four-point lead with just under three minutes left.

The junior star scored only three points in the second half, instead dishing out five assists and grabbing two steals.

“There were calls that he was, say, call this offensive patent and we would make the call. You could see him looking for the double team to find his teammate,” Martelli said.

It's the first NCAA win for Martelli and the Hawks since Jameer Nelson & Co. advanced to the Elite 8 in 2004, after a one-game appearance in March Madness in 2014.

To reach the second weekend, they'll need to go through the West's No. 1 seed, Oregon (29-6), which downed Holy Cross 91-52 in an earlier win on Friday night.