St. John's guard Dylan Darling hits buzzer-beater against Kansas to get the Red Storm into the Sweet 16

· Yahoo Sports

Dylan Darling put St. John’s in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.

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Darling made a buzzer-beating layup to give the No. 5 Red Storm a 67-65 win over No. 4 Kansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday. Darling’s layup came off an inbounds play following Kansas’ four purposeful fouls in an effort to prevent the Red Storm from winning the game after the Jayhawks had tied it.

Kansas tied the game with 13 seconds to go on two free throws by star freshman Darryn Peterson. As Peterson was at the line, Kansas had committed just two fouls all half. That meant the Jayhawks had the opportunity to foul St. John’s four times without putting the Red Storm at the line unless they were shooting fouls.

The scenario for the intentional foul strategy was obvious. Yet the Jayhawks failed to execute it well.

Kansas used two fouls in two seconds. By the time Kansas committed its third foul, there were roughly six seconds on the clock. And when the Jayhawks committed their sixth foul — a seventh foul would have put a St. John’s player at the line — there was still 3.9 seconds to go. And, as it turns out, that was plenty of time for Darling to get to the lane for the game-winner. 

And that basket was Darling’s first points of the game. According to Sports Reference’s database, he’s the only player in NCAA tournament history to score his first points of the game on a buzzer-beater.

Darling had missed his first four shots before the layup and all of them were 3-pointers.

The basket also blunted what would have been one of the greatest comebacks in Kansas basketball history. The Jayhawks trailed by 14 points in the second half but tied the game on Peterson’s free throws. Kansas’ only lead of the game came with 18:09 remaining in the first half.

That near-comeback got an assist from the officials, too. With less than three minutes to go, St. John’s was called for an over-and-back violation after Kansas’ Melvin Council Jr. clearly tipped away a handoff above the 3-point line. Since Council touched the ball, St. John’s should have been able to keep the ball after retaining possession behind the mid-court line.

But St. John’s coach Rick Pitino couldn’t challenge the call after burning his only challenge early in the second half on an obvious out-of-bounds call that went against the Red Storm. 

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