Maryland-Baltimore county scores a historic upset

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March 17, 2018 4:58 AM

They played loose and fearless, simply because they had nothing to lose. A No. 16 seed had never beaten a No. 1 seed in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Who would ever think that tiny Maryland-Baltimore County would be the one to break through?

Certainly not against Virginia, the top overall seed, a two-loss team that had handily won Division I’s toughest league, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and its conference tournament.

But the NCAAtournament is different. The Cavaliers carried all the pressure, the Retrievers none of it. And they rode that carefree wave in one of college basketball’s most surprising upsets.

This one was for Princeton, East Tennessee State, Western Carolina — all the No. 16 seeds that had come close to pulling off this feat before the Retrievers did it. Since 1985, No. 1 seeds had advanced at least to the second round 135 consecutive times. Virginia, playing only a few hours from home, would become the first to fail, 74-54, on Friday at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Before Friday, UMBC had never beaten an ACC team. It had lost to teams including Army, Stony Brook and Albany this season. It reached the tournament on a desperation 3-pointer by its senior leader, Jairus Lyles, in the America East Conference tournament championship game.

But with 15 minutes, 52 seconds remaining, the Retrievers had already left Virginia with the largest deficit it had faced all season (13 points). The lead would grow to 17 with less than four minutes left. UMBC’s reserves looked unsure how to celebrate; they appeared as stunned as the Cavaliers.

Virginia had the nation’s top-ranked defense, but UMBC shot 52 percent from the floor. It outrebounded the Cavaliers and had 12 assists to Virginia’s four.

Virginia took a blow just before the tournament began: De’Andre Hunter, the conference’s Sixth Man of the Year Award winner and one of the best defenders in the country, was ruled out with a wrist fracture sustained in the ACC tournament.

How big a factor that was will remain a question for history. For now, UMBC can claim it was the one to finally slay the dragon of March.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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