Saint Peter's basketball honors miraculous March Madness run with emotional ceremony

JERSEY CITY – Corey Washington’s rim-rocking dunk six minutes into Monday night’s season-opener gave Saint Peter’s a 17-0 lead over NJIT, and Run Baby Run Arena was rocking.

It was a fitting extension of what had already been an emotional evening featuring a pregame ceremony honoring the Peacocks’ miraculous run to NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight as a No. 15 seed and the raising of a banner to mark March Madness’ greatest underdog story ever. Championship rings were handed out for winning the MAAC Tournament title.

While the coaching staff is gone and many of the players are now scattered about the college basketball landscape, none of that mattered as the video highlights played and the names were called out.

Finally, it was former coach Shaheen Holloway, who scripted upsets of Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue before departing to take the Seton Hall job, walking onto the court to a raucous ovation to close the festivities, then slipping out before the game tipped off.

First 15th seed to come within a victory of the Final Four

“It was emotional,” Holloway said. “I spent four years here and the fans and administration were great to me. To be here tonight to receive these rings and look at the banner..."

“When I was asked to come back I was kind of torn. I don’t want to take away from what’s going on tonight. This is their season opener with a new coach. The last thing (new head coach Bashir Mason) wants to do is to keep being reminded about what happened last year. So I was I was kind of torn. But then I thought about it. What we did was NCAA history, for me not to show up would have been disrespectful.”

Historic it was. The Peacocks became first 15th seed ever to come within a victory of reaching the Final Four.

Standing at the corner of the court moments after arriving, forward KC Ndefo, who followed Holloway to Seton Hall, looked up at the banner with his 1,180 career points next to his name, alongside the greatest scorers in program history.

More:Saint Peter's basketball: Historic March Madness run still resonates as new season is here

“This is like coming home. It’s always a great feeling coming in here. This is where I played so many games,’ said Ndefo, last year's MAAC Tournament MVP, who was named the league’s top defensive player three times. “We started a heritage here, bringing a good culture here.”

The crowd was 1,129, which isn't bad for a team that had just 526 coming through the turnstiles on average last season.

But since the Saint Peter’s brand got the kind of publicity you simply can’t pay for, donations to the school are up, along with enrollment and merchandise sales, and the school’s profile has been raised immeasurably. The hope is that it translates into more support for the program.

'It was so magical'

“I’ve gone to so many of these games so many years, it just made me so proud that everyone else got to see the magic of Saint Peter’s that I knew all these years,” said Morristown’s John Gogarty, who said he's been attending games for 45 years. “So for me as a fan, to reach the Elite Eight was incomprehensible.

“I’m in public relations and I’ve been to some very cool events, the Super Bowl, NBA All-Star game, but I’ve never been more amped up to celebrate what happened last year than anything I’ve been to before. It was so magical. I couldn’t believe it was happening when it was happening.”

Saint Peter’s certainly did its part in giving the fans a reason to come back.

With returnees like guard Jaylen Murray coming off the bench to ignite a first-half surge that saw the Peacocks open up a 41-20 lead, they rolled to a 73-57 victory. Washington, Mason's prize freshman recruit, finished with 18 points, on 5-of-5-shooting from the floor, and 8-of-10 from the line, and eight rebounds in his first college game.

“That’s the foundation. We’re not trying to forget about what happened, we’re trying to build on it, without living in that moment," said Mason, a Jersey City native who comes home after leading Wagner to three Northeast Conference regular season championships. "That happened, tomorrow came and now we have to keep moving forward.

“I really just kept the focus on what we’ve been building, I really didn’t mention one word about the ceremony. It was really just in the way for me."

The team that no one thought could knock off a few of college basketball’s elite last season is picked to finish eighth in the MAAC this season. But on this night, it was all about believing, and celebrating the impact the ultimate underdogs had on people everywhere.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Saint Peter's NJ basketball celebrates miraculous March Madness run