Bryant McIntosh will always be remembered as the hero of Northwestern’s historic NCAA Tournament win over Vanderbilt on Thursday, and rightfully so. The star guard made 10 of 16 shots, including 3 of 5 3-pointers, and scored a game-high 25 points to carry the Wildcats to the win.
But if McIntosh was Batman, Dererk Pardon was his Robin down the stretch. With the game on the line, Pardon delivered at the line. Northwestern’s sophomore center, the worst free-throw shooter on the team, made six consecutive free throws on three trips to the line in the last 4:06.
Northwestern wound up needing every one of them in a frantic 68-66 victory that saw six lead changes in a last 1:36. Pardon also scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds, including four on the offensive end.
Pardon had been 0-for-2 from the line before the stretch run, but with the game in the balance the 6-foot-8 big man with the headband calmly drained a half dozen straight. And each one with the weight of trying to win the first NCAA Tournament game the school had ever played on his shoulders.
CBS Sports broadcaster Bill Raftery would probably say that Pardon showed some “onions” with his performance.
Northwestern head coach Chris Collins agreed.
“I was really proud of Dererk, especially,” said Collins. “He’s had his struggles at the line throughout his career. He works at it religiously every day and for him to walk up and make six in a row in the last (four) minutes or whatever it was…I was really proud of him.”
One of the most critical matchups of this first-round game between eighth and ninth seeds was Pardon against Vanderbilt big man Luke Kornet, a 7-footer with a 3-point shooting touch. By the end of the contest Pardon had as many points and six more rebounds as his counterpart. Pardon turned the ball over five times, but he harassed Kornet into 4-of-12 shooting.
It was more than just Pardon who put the game on ice with cold accuracy in crunch time. After Pardon’s six straight, McIntosh drilled a pair and Sanjay Lumpkin hit one of two.
Earlier in the game, it looked like the charity stripe would prove to be Northwestern’s undoing – the Wildcats hit just one of their first seven from the line. But when it mattered most, they nailed nine of their last 10 to seal the deal.
“These guys deserve it,” was what Collins said he was thinking in the closing minutes. “They put in the time, they put in the work, they deserve to make these.”
The first time Pardon stepped to the line was after he was fouled by Kornet while attempting to dunk. There was 4:06 left and Northwestern, which had seen a 15-point second-half lead all but evaporate, was clinging to a 57-55 lead. He had missed two free throws in a row earlier in the half, with the Wildcats up by 10, but this time Pardon looked calm and composed.
He spun the ball once in his hands, he dribbled it once, and he shot it. Good. He repeated the sequence again and Northwestern had a four-point lead.
The second time came with 2:30 left, with Northwestern leading 59-58. Pardon got the ball off of a pick-and-roll with McIntosh and was again fouled by Kornet.
Again, Pardon stepped up. Spin, dribble, shoot. Good. Spin, dribble, shoot. Good. Northwestern led 61-58.
Then, the game changed, as did the mood in Vivint Arena, which had sounded like a virtual Northwestern home game for most of the afternoon. Vanderbilt took its first lead of the second half, 62-61, on a 3-poiner by Riley LaChance. Fans in purple, most conspicuously Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Doug Collins, had anguished looks on their faces.
McIntosh answered LaChance’s big shot with a jumper to regain the lead, but after a missed free throw by Vic Law, Jeff Roberson hit a layup to give Vandy a one-point advantage again.
McIntosh missed a driving layup in traffic and Pardon, trying to tip in the miss, was fouled again by Kornet with 26.1 seconds left. Kornet, Vandy’s star, fouled out of the game with 14 points and 5 rebounds.
This time Pardon stepped to the line down 1, with the shot clock turned off in a game that could end the Wildcats’ magic season right here, right now.
Spin, dribble, shoot. Good. Spin, dribble, shoot. Good. Northwestern again had the lead, 65-64.
The Wildcats would lose that lead once more on a layup by LaChance, but then came the turning point: a needless foul by Matthew Fisher-Davis on McIntosh near half-court. Fisher-Davis, mistakenly thinking the Commodores were losing, intentionally fouled McIntosh, the best free-throw shooter on the team, with 15 seconds left.
McIntosh calmly sank both free throws and the Wildcats again had a one-point lead. This time, they wouldn’t let it go. After a miss by LaChance from beyond the arc, Lumpkin made one of two free throws to give the Wildcats their final margin.
Collins said that McIntosh’s clutch shots didn’t surprise him. He was more impressed by Pardon’s steely performance.
“Bryant is a guy you want on the line, he’s got ice water in his veins. You know he’s going to make those,” he said. “But with Dererk, you know, kind of being in that situation for the first time – really big growing experience for him to step up and make those free throws when we needed them.”
McIntosh’s virtuoso performance will always be remembered. But Pardon’s clutch shots shouldn’t be forgotten, either.
