[ad_1]
The big dance may be over for the St. Peter’s Peacocks – but the local fans who rallied around the small Jersey City school won’t soon forget the squad’s historic Cinderella run to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight.
“They have proven to do something amazing,” Maya Barrow, 32, told The Post from a packed viewing party at Jersey City’s Hudson Hall as the Peacocks were losing to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels en route to a crushing defeat on Sunday night.
“They’ve put Jersey City on the map. They’re amazing. We are 100 percent behind them,” Barrow said from the beer hall where over 300 fans had gathered to cheer on the underdogs.
Ahead of tip-off, expectations for the game were tempered for the team that won the hearts of New Jersey, but spirits were high as the crowd danced to NJ-native Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer” waving blue peacock feathers.
Saint Peter’s graduate student Tom Petrillo, 31, was elated that the team had made it into the Elite Eight — becoming the first 15th seed in the tournament’s history to do so.
“You got to be happy for them because they got this far,” said Petrillo, who was sporting a Peacock Pride T-shirt. “Nobody expected for them to get this far. Everyone thought they’d be out in the first round.”
“This was a tough, tough game,” he said “You’re talking about a school that has 4,000 students playing North Carolina … It puts us on the map. It says come here, we’re good.”
The 8th seed Tarheels ultimately proved to be too overwhelming for the scrappy, defensively-minded Saint Peter’s team. UNC rode a hot-shooting first half to take a commanding 38-19 lead over Saint Peter’s after the Peacocks started the game 4-20 from the field.
The second half was much of the same as Carolina outmuscled and outshot St. Peter’s to a 69-49 final on the way to its 21st Final Four appearance – the most in NCAA history.
At a game viewing event on campus, Saint Peter’s University students, decked in the Peacocks’ white and blue, never gave up cheering for the struggling team even as UNC’s lead topped 20 points.
But as time wound down, reality set in.
“It’s tragic, you know what I mean. They were right there. You were made to believe everything was possible,” said Jersey City resident Alex Hall, 22, after storming out of Hudson Hall with eight minutes left of the game. “They did a lot of good. You can feel the energy in every bar in Downtown Jersey City.”
Chris Petitt, 61, who grew up in Jersey City, held an empty martini glass O’Hara’s Bar and Grill in Jersey City as the final minutes ticked off the clock. To him, the Elite Eight loss was “still an accomplishment. It’s not a failure.”
“It sucks. I’m disappointed. I’m a way back St Peter’s fan. Saw them back in ‘74 … I wish they made more of a game of this,” he said.
Pettit said he thinks Carolina figured out how to beat St. Peter’s, who shocked the country after upsetting 2-seeded Kentucky and 7-seeded Murray State in the preceding rounds.
“For a team that small to go this far is tremendous. It’s going to elevate the economy of Jersey City.”
As the clock ran out in O’Hara’s, the crowd erupted into chants of “Let’s go Peacocks!” in spit of the 20-point defeat.
“I think they had nothing to lose. It felt like it was all gravy after they beat Kentucky,” Jordan Rabinowitz, 31, ofJersey City said after the game. “I’m disappointed that they didn’t get to the Final Four. It would have added another layer to the magnitude of how the run has been.”
North Carolina will face arch-rival Duke University for the first time ever in the Final Four in part of a storybook ending to the career of legendary Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is retiring after this season.
[ad_2]