THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, March 20, 2016

An announced crowd of 11,274 watched Saint Joseph’s thrilling victory over Cincinnati on Friday night at Spokane Arena in a first-round game of the NCAA basketball tournament.

Years from now, most of North Idaho and eastern Washington will claim they were there.

OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s the kind of game that makes this tournament continue to be special, even after all these years.

You figure the game between the 8 and 9 seeds would be a close one — after all, there’s a reason why they’re seeded eighth and ninth — but this one was even better than expected.

Saint Joe’s led by as much as 12 in the second half, but you knew Cincinnati wasn’t going to go away — the Bearcats have been a battling bunch stretching back to the days of Bob Huggins.

In the final minute late, Cincinnati went ahead and looked like it was going to win, only to see Saint Joseph’s take the lead with a 3 with seven seconds left.

Cincinnati didn’t pout, instead rushing the ball up the court and getting what it thought was a game-tying dunk at the buzzer, only to have the officials rule the ball was still on the player’s fingertips when the clock struck 0.0.

What followed was the ecstasy (Saint Joseph’s celebrating) and the agony (Cincinnati sitting on the court, in stunned disbelief) that we’ve come to love about the tournament, as well as feel a little sad.

Truly road Warriors: People remember Hawaii mostly for its football team, with recent star quarterbacks Colt Brennan and Timmy Chang. The basketball team … well, you might see them late at night in November when ESPN does its 24 hours of hoops, you might see them when they host their tournament in December, and maybe, if you’re a real diehard, you might follow them at the Big West tournament.

Other than that … there wasn’t much reason to pay attention to Hawaii hoops. Sure, an NIC kid (Matt Gipson) played there a few years back, but the Warriors had never won an NCAA game in four previous trips until whipping Cal on Friday at the Arena.

Hawaii has been away from the Island for nearly the entire month of March. It started with Big West games at UC Davis (March 3) and Long Beach State two days later, followed by three wins in the conference tournament the following week in Anaheim, Calif.

The team stayed on the mainland between then and its trip to Spokane for the NCAAs.

“We’re looking at week three on the road, so I guess in a weird way we have road experience, both traveling and on the road,” said first-year Hawaii coach Eran Ganot, the former Saint Mary’s assistant who was an assistant at Hawaii under Bob Nash. “Look, this group, to do well, you have to perform on the road. You can’t avoid it. I think we’re now 11-2 on neutral sites or on the road, which is pretty special for every team.”

The key, Ganot said, is rest and routine. Plus, Rainbow fans travel well. They turn out in numbers, and make noise at the arena, and their enthusiasm is infectious.

Courting excitement: The NCAA has spruced up its floors for the first and second rounds of the tournament. Gone are the drab floors, with black around the baselines and sidelines, and a dab of blue in the little semi-circles between the foul line and the top of the key.

This year, the floor is a mixture of three different colors, and the perimeter is a mixture of bright colors. Obviously the NCAA didn’t consult the University of Idaho, the host institution for the games in Spokane, when they painted the floor used in the Arena.

The perimeter is a mixture of blue and orange — school colors of that other Division I school in the state.

Making a name: Few people in the Inland Northwest had likely ever heard of DeAndré Bembry until recently. But the 6-foot-6 junior forward wowed the crowd in Spokane on Friday night with 20 first-half points, including 3 of 3 on 3 pointers. He finished with 23 points and five assists, the final assist going to Isaiah Miles, whose 3-pointer with 7 seconds to go proved to be the game winner vs. Cincinnati.

In the first half, as Bembry was filling it up, he was hearing it from a loud fan in the Cincinnati rooting section. Moments later, Bembry drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing, in front of the Bearcat fans, and got knocked over by a Bearcat player in the process. As Bembry lie on the court, a toppled Cinci player next to him, he still had the presence to sneak a glance at the fan in the stands, and flash three fingers for a 3-pointer.

“Everybody in the country now knows his name,” Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli said. Even (Gonzaga coach) Mark Few will now say, ‘That kid with the afro? You mean Bembry?’ He will say Bembry.”

Happy ending: The finish was a bright end to a day that started lousy for the Martelli family. Phil received a call early Friday morning from his son, Phil Jr., who had been fired as assistant coach at University of Delaware. Then dad coaches in a well-played game with a thrilling, albeit controversial, finish.

“Look, I’m not cliche-ish, but if that isn’t everything that this tournament’s about, including the agony,” Phil Martelli said of the game.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of the Press. He can be reached by phone at (208) 664-8176, ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.