And Just Like That, It Was Over

I think there's a collective feeling of being stunned in AUHoops world tonight. In case you missed it, our Eagles fell to the Laugh-ayette LOLKitties 73-71 in double overtime tonight in front of a packed Bender Arena audience. The box score is here, and the recap is here. For what it's worth, I've got a couple of thoughts about the game. I'll have thoughts about the season as a whole later in the week once I formulate everything. I hope Bobby and Josh will chime in too. Away we go.

- First off, big thank yous to Nick Hendra, Steve Luptak, and Vlad Moldoveanu for their AU careers. Unbelievably bitter end to things for them, but they've all had solid careers and deserve to be commended for what they've done. Congratulations especially to Vlad who scored his 1,000th point in this game and wound up as the 27th highest scoring player in AU history. I needn't remind you he only played 1.5 seasons with us.

- Based on how things went for AU through most of regulation, I'm surprised there was one overtime, let alone two. AU trailed at halftime by 2. We shot less than 40% for the game. It wasn't that we weren't getting shots, it's that our shots just would not drop. The back irons of both rims must be worn down a little bit from the number of shots we rubbed against them today. We were especially poor from long range today and shot just 3-16. Vlad and Troy combined to go 2-12. Just one of those days for us, they just wouldn't drop. With 10:52 left in the second half, I was tweeting that this was one of the worst games I'd seen from the Eagles in a while. It was that bad.

- Lump had a slow start to the game today (4 points and 4 rebounds in the first half, I actually thought he was under the weather based on how slow he looked), but he sure had a hell of a game by the end. 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks. One of those blocks came against Jared Mintz with 30 seconds to go in regulation and AU up 2. Why was AU up 2? Because of Lump's baby hook on the other end 30 seconds before. He was just a monster at the end of the game. Wish we could've gotten a few more FTs out of him (he was 5-10), but I'll take 50% out of Lump in a game like this. High pressure, and he's not the best FT shooter. Some things I live with, that's one of them.

- The Lafayette fans were out in force today. They definitely asserted themselves in Bender. The atmosphere in Bender in the last 10 minutes of regulation and through the overtimes was absolutely electric. Wish they had gone home sad, but I commend them for making the trip down here.

- Security was lining up in front of the student section toward the end of regulation as if students were going to rush the court if we pulled out the win. In a semi-final? That we were expected to win? Seriously? I can't speak for all of the students, but no way does rushing the court cross my mind in that scenario.

- Troy's three-pointer at the end of regulation should've forestalled any overtime period. Off an in-bound with 2.5 on the clock, Troy drained an NBA range 3 from the top of the key. Or so it seemed. The ball got halfway down and then spun out. Agonizing. Just like everything else about this game.

- Mintz was 8-15 from the field, but it sure seemed like he made more than that. Seemed to me like he made every shot he took and that he took a lot of them. He got the better of Lump and Tony for most of the game, but surprisingly he only had six boards.

- The second overtime here will haunt our fans and players for a while I think. It looked like we had our foot on the Leopards' throat at 70-64. Things were great. Hendra was exhorting the crowd. And then Lafayette went on a 9-1 run to close the game. Brutal.

- The loss leaves AU's final record at 22-9. The 22 wins is the 4th best in program history. The loss snaps a 14-game winning streak against Lafayette.

Ah what could've been. That's all I've got for now. I'll be back tomorrow or later this week with some more thoughts about the season.

For now, thanks to our readers who have made this season great. The liveblog today was great, so thanks for keeping Bobby company. Thanks to the players and coaches for all their hard work this season. Sorry it ends like this, but so it goes, I guess.

As always,

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!