The woman with the biggest heart walked off the court with her jersey soaked the darkest shade of red, drenched in all the sweat. Her melt-your-heart blue eyes were red as well, overcome by tears as unstoppable as her jumper.

Purdue didn't stop the NCAA's all-time leading scorer tonight. The past month did. "I just ran out of gas," Jackie Stiles said.

As one of the Southwest Missouri State assistant coaches put it, "You could just tell she didn't have anything left. She tried to have that look in her eyes tonight, but you could tell it wasn't there."

The day before the game, Stiles woke up early for a special autograph session, chatted with reporters, practiced, chatted with reporters, went to two different dinner banquets, chatted with reporters, and finally fell apart.

To alleviate the pressure, her teammates would gently needle her about her compulsive rituals or tease her about being the star. Didn't work. In her hotel late Thursday night, with only teammate Tara Mitchem around, Stiles couldn't hold back any longer and wept. "She's so gifted," Mitchem said in the locker room after the loss, while staring at Jackie's personal media mob. "But I feel so sorry for her."

Don't. If anything, Jackie Stiles showed us how success is attained when hard work is given, and how grace beats whining hands-down. After all but two reporters had left the locker room, I asked her what she's learned in the past month. "I just can't believe so many people care," she said. "Look at what happened because I just believed in my dreams."

The thunder never stopped. The game had been over for almost 45 minutes and fans were still cheering for her outside the locker room. "They're cheering for me?" she said, gleaming. "All those people are still here?"

They're winners, too.

Seth Wickersham is covering the Final Four for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at seth.wickersham@espnmag.com.