There was a lot of green among the crowd of 10,231 at FedExForum tonight, and I swear I saw a leprechaun blow a kiss at the last shot taken. With his team’s season on the line, Wesley Witherspoon took a pass from Elliot Williams at the top of the key, drove through the lane and tossed up a leaning, off-the-glass rim-tickler that fell through the basket only after the buzzer had sounded to beat St. John’s, 73-71, in the first round of the 2010 NIT. The ball hung on the right side of the rim just long enough to tease before gently deciding to tumble through the net. Leprechaun or otherwise, a blown kiss seemed to play a part. (The Tigers are now 8-0 in games played on St. Patrick’s Day.)
- Larry Kuzniewski
- Wesley Witherspoon . . . mobbed
“I have never experienced anything like that in my life,” said an ebullient Will Coleman after the game. “The noise when the ball went through almost tore the roof off the Forum. I’ve never, ever heard anything that loud in my life. It was great; I’m glad I was on the winning team.” Coleman lifted his game against the Big East visitors, scoring 10 points and adding 12 rebounds and three blocked shots. But like each of his teammates, it was Witherspoon’s buzzer-beater that was the talk of the locker room.
“It was a lucky shot,” admitted Witherspoon. “I won’t say I tried to make it like that, but it went in by the grace of God. The play was for Elliot, to get to the basket and make an unbelievable shot. But I saw the defense collapse, and I called for the ball. I lost the ball for a second, but I got it back and I made the shot.”
Witherspoon actually scored the last seven points of the game for the Tigers, draining a three-pointer from the left corner with 42 seconds left to give Memphis a 69-67 lead, then hitting a pair of free throws with 28 seconds left to extend the lead to 71-68. A three-pointer by the Red Storm’s Anthony Mason Jr. (son of the former New York Knick enforcer and a graduate of Fairley High School) tied the game at 71, setting up Witherspoon’s game-winner.
