DAYTON, Ohio _ Florida A&M's reward for winning the NCAA Tournament play-in game would have earned coach Mike Gillespie, an assistant and five players from the Chicago area a trip home this weekend and a date with top-seeded Kansas.
But the only reward the Rattlers got was a return ticket to Tallahassee and a feeling of disdain for the NCAA selection committee.
Clif Brown and Niagara snatched FAMU's spot in the Field of 64 on Tuesday night _ and arguably the last little bit of goodness from the Rattlers' season _ with a 77-69 victory at the University of Dayton Arena.
Niagara, playing its first game since winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title on March 5, won its first tournament game in 37 years and will play Kansas on Friday. FAMU, which was playing its fourth game in six nights after winning the MEAC title Sunday, is going home bitter. And Gillespie made it a point to rub his feelings toward the NCAA in deep.
"We and Niagara earned the right to be a Cinderella, we earned the right to be David versus Goliath. We won three grueling games in three grueling nights. We deserve the right to play on that slipper and play as the 16th seed," Gillespie told reporters as he closed his news conference.
"I won my conference. I did what the NCAA asked me to do. I didn't come in third, I didn't get beat the first game of my tournament. Let us wear that slipper for one day, because that's what this is what this is all about. Our kids deserved that, and they were denied that. This is like playing another conference championship game. I hope the NCAA will take a look and ask those teams to be the last two at-large teams to come in and win this game because they did not win that tournament. We did."
FAMU (21-14) didn't win Tuesday, though. And they can blame Brown and some poor rebounding for it.
Brown, a transfer from Kent State, scored 24 of his game-high 32 points in the second half and led the Purple Eagles (23-11) on a key 16-8 run midway through the second half that turned a four-point lead at the 17:46 mark into a 53-41 lead with 12:22 to play. Brown scored 12 of his team's points during the stretch and connected on 6-of-11 three-point attempts in the game.
FAMU cut the deficit to 64-57 when Brian Greene stole the ball at midcourt and turned a beautiful fake behind-the-back pass into a layup at the 4:32 mark. But the Rattlers, who were outscored 26-9 on second-chance points, couldn't take advantage of four consecutive offensive rebounds off missed free throws, and Niagara eventually distanced itself for good.
The Rattlers, though, did show some spark in the first half. After starting the game shooting a horrendous 4 of 21 from the field, the Rattlers rallied from a 20-7 deficit to take a brief lead on L.C. Robinson's three-pointer with 2:43 left in the first half. But it was the only lead the Rattlers enjoyed. Brown's putback at the 2:13 mark gave the Purple Eagles the lead for good.
"I thought we played as hard as we could for as long as we could," Gillespie said. "We hit a wall and Niagara took advantage. Brown is a great player. He really surprised us."
The Rattlers got 15 points from Darius Glover and 10 points and nine rebounds from Green, but could never free up leading scorer and MEAC All-Conference first-Team selection Rome Sanders. He finished with 10 points and eight rebounds on only six field goal attempts.
"They were real long," Sanders said. "They outrebounded us, and that was the game."
Gillespie said the Rattlers, who started three fifth-year seniors, will go home and try to feel good about their season.
"This is a sad feeling, it's a feeling of helplessness," Gillespie said. "I don't know how to uplift them because what they've done this year has been incredible. The accomplishments, the wins, the way we won the game. And that all gets lost a little bit right now tonight and that's not fair to the student athlete. And it's not fair that the MEAC gets thrown into this game. If we're the 65th best team in the tournament this year, then this one hell of a tournament."
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