PHILADELPHIA — The formal ceremony of surrender arrived with 81 seconds left in the game. The ride was going to end here after all for Saint Peter’s. It was going to end 90 or so minutes from campus, after a magic carpet ride that had taken them ever so tantalizingly close to the sun. Now it was time to say goodbye. 

There was a break in the action. Five players jumped to their feet and walked to the scorer’s table. A free throw was taken. A buzzer sounded. And out of the game came Daryl Banks III and Matthew Lee, out came Hassan Drame and KC Ndefo and Doug Edert. They gathered with coach Shaheen Holloway before they returned to the bench. Clarence Rupert joined them. And they embraced, as one. 

One last moment when the team that captured America’s heart would be locked together on the court. From now on, forever, it will be in the hearts, minds and memories of those who went on the ride with them. 

“Keep your heads high!” Holloway ordered 

They would. How could they not? Look what they did. 

“What we did was amazing,” Ndefo would say later, after North Carolina would live up to its blue-blood pedigree and send the Peacocks home, 69-49, ending Saint Peter’s dream one step shy of the Final Four. 

“It’s a brotherhood. Words can’t describe what we did. For us to be the only team to do this is historical. We’re blessed with that.” 

In some ways, it was clear Sunday that Saint Peter’s was going to pay for the way it had comported itself during this three-game joy ride, knocking of Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue. They wouldn’t sneak up on Carolina. The Tar Heels, from the start, were on their game, didn’t look nearly as spooked by the moment or by Saint Peter’s tenacity as Purdue had two days earlier. 

And Saint Peter’s didn’t help itself by shooting ice cold from the field. Inside, outside, drives, tip-ins; nothing went in. Even a beautifully drawn-up alley-oop play out of a timeout, exactly the kind of textbook design they’d executed all tournament long, flopped. Maybe Saint Peter’s didn’t need to shoot 70 percent to win — they hadn’t done that yet in this tournament and still managed to shake up the brackets — but 20 percent wasn’t going to get it done, either. 

Not against an engaged Carolina. Not with the Final Four one skinny step away — and the potential of what’ll surely be an Armageddon rematch with Duke awaiting in New Orleans. 

So even as so much of the Wells Fargo Center bayed and prayed for Peacocks power, Saint Peter’s fell into a quick 9-0 hole. Soon enough it was double digits. It was 20 just before the half. The season, the run, the ride, it all started to die a little bit right there. 

“I didn’t recognize my team the first 10 minutes of the game,” Holloway said, regret already settling into his voice. “We were a little slow, a little timid. I thought we had a good game plan. They were just the better team today.” 

Even as he said that, of course, Holloway was already reliving this remarkable game. He will get other chances, and soon, and if, as expected, he becomes the Seton Hall coach this week you can expect those opportunities to begin as early as next year. He’ll have other runs. 

Just not with this group. 

“I wish we could play this game over again,” he said. 

And, later: “I really thought we would win. Truthfully, I thought we matched up well with them.” 

That’s what made this run so wonderful, so endearing: from the start, the least surprised people in any room they walked into the last 11 days were Holloway and his players. You can call what they had an irrational confidence but you could also bottle it and sell it at this point, too. You want what they have. 

“We caught the attention of everybody,” Banks said, and they sure did. Other teams have worn the glass slipper to these tournaments; none wore it as well as the Peacocks did. From now on, they will be the gold standard. From now on, whenever a team takes the floor at the NCAA Tournament with a low seed and long odds, they will tell themselves to remember Saint Peter’s. Remember what the Peacocks did. Remember how they made this tournament their own. 

Remember how they had you believing the same as Holloway did: surely a part of you thought they would win. Why not? Is there anything better in sports than believing in the impossible? 

“Saint Peter’s made it to the Elite Eight,” Holloway said, smiling. “Great story.” 

One of the best ever.