SACRAMENTO — 'Iolani School graduate Derrick Low had the kind of NCAA Tournament performance yesterday any Hawai'i basketball player would dream about, except for the final 3:52 of a 50-minute, double-overtime thriller.

Low, a 6-foot-2 junior guard for Washington State, scored a team-high 21 points and added three assists, two rebounds and two steals but did not take a shot in the final stretch of the Cougars' heartbreaking 78-74 loss to Vanderbilt in second-round action before 16,407 screaming fans at ARCO Arena.

The defeat ended a storybook 26-8 season for the 13th-ranked Cougars, who were picked to finish last in the Pac-10 Conference and made their first NCAA second-round appearance since 1983.

"It was a magical ride," said Low, an All-Pac-10 selection and former three-time Advertiser State Player of the Year.

For a while yesterday, it looked as if he would lead the Cougars into yet another new chapter in their improbable fairy tale. Low's 3-pointer from the right wing tied the score at 69-69 with 38.9 seconds remaining in the first overtime, and his jumper near the free throw line tied it again at 71-71 with 3:52 left in the second OT.

But that was the last shot he took, and the Commodores (22-11) grabbed the lead for good 20 seconds later on Ted Skuchas' putback. Shane Foster then had a steal and dunk with 2:35 remaining to make it 75-71, and Alex Gordon's free throw pushed the lead to 76-71 with 50.1 ticks left.

Daven Harmeling cut it to 76-74 on a 3-pointer from the left corner with 35.8 seconds remaining, and Gordon missed two free throws with 28.9 ticks left.

But Washington State guard Taylor Rochestie misfired on a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 15 seconds remaining, and Vanderbilt grabbed the rebound and found Foster open for a game-clinching slam.

"Let me just say that was one of the best college basketball games I've ever been involved in," said Commodores coach Kevin Stallings, who played for Purdue from 1980 to 1982 and also coached at Purdue, Kansas and Illinois State. "As happy as I am for our team, my heart goes out to (Cougars coach) Tony Bennett and the Washington State players because neither team deserved to lose that game. We didn't fight any harder than they did; we just made a couple more plays, and that's just the nature of close games like that."

Low certainly did his part to make it such a thriller.

He scored 10 points in the first half to help the Cougars take a 33-25 lead into the locker room, and his baseline runner put Washington State up, 43-35, with 14:47 left in the second half. But Vanderbilt guard Derrick Byars, the Southeast Conference Player of the Year, scored 12 points during a 20-8 run that gave the Commodores a 55-51 lead with 7:50 remaining.

The teams then traded leads until Cougars guard Kyle Weaver hit a free throw to tie it at 60 with 46 seconds left, sending it into overtime.

Vanderbilt went up 67-64 on Byars' 3-pointer with 2:21 remaining in the first OT, but Low answered with a mid-range jumper 20 seconds later to cut it to 67-66. After Byars swished a baseline shot to make it 69-66 with 57 seconds left, Low responded again with his 3-pointer to tie it at 69 and send it into a second extra period.

"We thought we could get a stop there, but they got Low open," Stallings said. "And being the great player that he is, he buried it."

Skuchas opened the second OT with two free throws to put the Commodores up, 71-69, but then Low swished another jumper to tie it again.

Weaver then committed three turnovers and missed a shot on four of Washington State's next five possessions, and center Aron Baynes missed a short hook shot on its other trip down the floor.

"I do wish Derrick would have had more looks at the end," Cougars coach Tony Bennett said. "Our other guys were being aggressive on offense, but maybe they should have looked for Derrick because he definitely had it going today and made a lot of big shots."

Low said he doesn't blame others for trying to make things happen at the end.

"Yeah, I wish I had the ball and a few more looks, but I have confidence in my teammates and they've come through before," Low said. "Even in the second half, I didn't get much looks, but we got some nice slips under the basket because they were playing us on the outside. That's how you play basketball; sometimes others can get open."

Low said until the end, he thought Washington State would pull it out the way it has so many times before.

"I thought we still had a good chance to win, if we could have just canceled out those turnovers at the end," Low said. "We didn't execute, but we just have to deal with it and learn from our mistakes. We showed we can compete with these kind of teams, so we just have to take the experience of playing in this atmosphere into next season.

"This year was still special."

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.