RALEIGH – They have room for everyone inside Heartbreak Hotel, even Cinderella.
Cinderella went kicking and screaming into that hotel last night.
Heart can take you only so far. Heart alone can’t get you to the Sweet 16. The biggest dreams die the hardest.
This one was floating tantalizingly in front of the Manhattan College Jaspers, as high as the Empire State Building, and Wake Forest swatted it all the way back to Riverdale.
How cruel. Little Manhattan College could smell the dream, taste the dream, could see it only 40 minutes away. Mayor Rudy would be at the Meadowlands, cheering on his old school, and they’d be waving Dominican flags for Luis Flores of Washington Heights, and Bobby Gonzalez would be shaking hands and kissing babies all week, the best coach the arena has seen since Lawrence Frank, the leader of New York’s new Darlings.
The Jaspers went down swinging, 84-80 losers. But they weren’t ready to put away the basketballs. When the final buzzer sounded, there were too many vacancies at The Heartbreak Hotel.
“Damn,” Peter Mulligan thought to himself. “Is it really over?”
It was over.
“So close,” Flores said.
So close, and yet so far.
“This team is disappointed and crushed right now; we weren’t The Little Engine That Could; we knew we could hang out with the big boys,” Gonzalez said.
They scared the hell out of the Deacons, but a magnificent freshman named Chris Paul (29 points) shattered the dream.
Down 13 at the half, implored to play like champions by an angry Gonzalez, the Jaspers charged back – 50-37 became 50-46, then 53-51.
Every time the Deacons threatened to nail the lid on the Manhattan coffin, the Jaspers rose up defiantly. It seemed like Manhattan-against-the-ACC World, and the world was on the ropes.
Gonzalez was asked about a hometown whistle. He measured his words carefully. “I thought there was a difference,” he said. “I thought they got protected a little bit.”
Flores, playing with four fouls, with Taron Downey in his face, drilled a threeball from the left wing and it was 78-74 with 4:18 left.
Mike Konovelchick, with a chance to cut it to one from the right wing, missed. “I was a little off-balance when I shot it; I don’t think I followed through all the way,” Konovelchick said.
Dave Holmes threw up a three-ball and Eric Williams fouled him with 44.2 ticks left. Holmes made two of three. It was 82-80.
Paul, guarded by the bigger Mulligan now, dribbled upcourt and wound up on the floor fighting for possession with Holmes. Wake ball, 13.6 on the game clock, :05 on the shot clock.
“Get a stop,” Gonzalez told them. “If we get a stop, we’re gonna tie it up or win the game.”
Holmes jumped out at Paul and Paul found Trent Strickland alone underneath for a jam and it was over.
Wracked with guilt, Holmes thought to himself: “Why did I jump out there on the double team?”
Gonzalez and Flores consoled Holmes as they trudged off to a somber locker room. Gonzalez spoke first. “I love you guys,” he said. Then Flores, then Holmes and Benton said the same thing to their teammates.
Gonzalez’ voice choked with emotion now and tears welled in his eyes. “If there was a situation where you had to send a team into an adverse situation, and they had to come out alive? I’d bet on this team coming out,” Gonzalez said.
