The Church Bells will be ringing all night from San Diego to New York as Dylan Darling’s buzzer beating layup punched the ticket of the St. John’s basketball team to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999.
His layup was the only basket he made in the 67-65 victory.
After Darryn Peterson tied the game at 65 with 14.1 seconds left on two made free throws in the midst of a 20-7 run, Kansas started to use its team fouls after only committing two in the entire half.
The Jayhawks handed out its sixth foul with 3.9 seconds left and Darling went to work.
He drove right by Elmarko Jackson for an uncontested layup that sent Red Storm faithful inside Viejas Arena into a frenzy.
Darling had been 0-for-4 prior to his layup with all of his shot attempts coming from 3-point territory. Rick Pitino said following the game that his point guard called his own play in the situation.
“Bells come up to me and says, run power, which is a high, back-screen pick-and-roll,” Pitino said after the victory. “So, I walk away and I said, wait a second. He hasn't scored a bucket, and he wants to run a play for himself…And not only did he do it, he went with his right hand.”
Bryce Hopkins continued his best stretch of the season in which he set a Red Storm record for most 3-pointers made in an NCAA Tournament game on 6-of-9 shooting from downtown.
All of his 18 points came from beyond the 3-point line.
St. John’s led by as many as 14 points, 56-42, with 8:53 remaining before Kansas started its run.
After seeing its first deficit in nearly six games early, St. John’s rattled off an 11-0 run to take 14-6 run but its hot shooting would quickly evaporate after a 5:46 scoreless stretch that saw ten straight missed shots and allowed the Jayhawks scored nine straight points to tie the game at 16.
The two sides traded blows until 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions by Ruben Prey and Joson Sanon opened the Red Storm lead to seven, 31-24, before taking an eight-point lead into halftime.
St. John’s will head back to New York before hitting the road to Washington D.C. for its Sweet 16 matchup against top-seed Duke on Friday night.