By: Danny O’Malley

There hasn’t been a game in March as wild, stressful and surprising as the Sweet 16 game between Xavier and Kansas State.

Xavier lost the game 101-96 in double overtime.

Four players in the game — junior Jordan Crawford and sophomore Terrell Holloway for Xavier and Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen for Kansas State — scored a total of 110 points in the double-overtime Xavier loss.

The leading scorer for Xavier was Crawford who put up 32 points, but he also added two rebounds and two assists.

Holloway put together a fantastic stat line with 26 points, six assists and two rebounds. He also shot a solid 10 of 13 from the free throw line.

Jason Love was able to clean up the boards by bringing in 15 rebounds.

As the game came to the end of the second half, Xavier was down three and Kansas State was instructed to foul Holloway. As the first player tried to foul Holloway, no foul was called. When the second player came to foul, Holloway acted like he was in the act of shooting, went to the line and sunk all three free throws to go into overtime.

In the first overtime, Kansas State was able to take a solid lead and hold it for almost the entire time, but when two of their players fouled out, it hurt their chances.

Xavier was down three with time ticking down in the first overtime when Crawford took the ball up the court, stopped and without hesitation snapped the netting on an NBA range 3-point field goal to send the game into a second overtime.

During the second overtime, Pullen was able to toss up an incredible three-point shot that lifted the Kansas State team, and Xavier was never able to regain control.

While Xavier was knocked out of the tournament, the team should still be proud of its strong season, especially with its theatrical double overtime finish.