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Pure Madness: FSU Among Late-Night Victims

The Associated Press

Arizona State's Rihards Kuksiks #30, forward Jeff Pendergraph #4 and guard James Harden #13 celebrate their win over Temple.

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The Associated Press

Published: March 20, 2009

Updated: 03/21/2009 01:03 am

BOISE, Idaho - After spending all night doing the dirty work on defense, Trevon Hughes got a more glamorous role at the end: Shooter of the crazy, spinning, bank shot with the game on the line.

Otherwise known as the game-winner for Wisconsin.

Hughes' twisting shot over Florida State's outstretched arms dropped with 2 seconds left in overtime to lift the Badgers to a 61-59 victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night.

Next up for 12th-seeded Wisconsin (20-12) is a meeting with Xavier in the second round of the East Regional.

It's doubtful the Badgers or Hughes will face a tougher test than what they had in Seminoles star Toney Douglas, the under-appreciated guard who averages 21 points and led the fifth-seeded Seminoles (25-10) to their first tournament appearance in 11 years.

Douglas finished with 26 points, not a single one of them easy, thanks to Hughes' huge defensive work.

Douglas' 3-point shot with 1:16 left gave the Seminoles a 59-56 lead but, smothered by the Wisconsin defense, he missed another one that would have put it away with less than 10 seconds to go.

That set the stage for Hughes, who had the ball all the way after a timeout, trailing by one with 8.3 seconds left. He dribbled left, spun right into the lane, then flipped the game-winner over Douglas and Chris Singleton. Drew contact, too, and made the free throw for a three-point play to make it 61-59.

If that wasn't enough, Hughes capped things by batting away Florida State's desperation pass at the end and the Badgers mobbed him at halfcourt to celebrate the victory.

Jason Bohannon led Wisconsin with 16 points, including a 3-pointer with the shot clock going off for 52-50 lead with 55 seconds left in regulation.

Keaton Nankivil had 14 and Hughes and Marcus Landry had 10 each for Wisconsin, which endured a six-game losing streak in January that put Bucky on the bubble for the last six weeks of the season. The Badgers stressed on Selection Sunday when it took a while for their name to pop up. Hearts were surely beating faster at the end of this one.

Florida State, meanwhile, had an NCAA tournament resume you could fit on the back of a business card - a grand total of 11 appearances. And though it won't grow much after this one, the Seminoles were certainly part of a memorable game.

Douglas had to work hard for every shot - had to work just to get the ball most of the time - thanks to the smothering done by Hughes and Jordan Taylor, who also took turns on the FSU star.

He finally shook free midway through the second half, scored nine of his team's 11 points during a stretch that turned a one-point defecit into a 44-37 lead.

But Wisconsin, which had been down as much as 12 at halftime, wouldn't quit.

Bohannon hit a 3-pointer with 2:24 left to put the Badgers ahead 49-48. Later came his heave from about 25 feet that made it 52-50. Douglas, however, answered with two free throws and the game was headed to overtime.

Wisconsin joined Western Kentucky and Arizona as the third vaunted No. 12 seed to pull an upset over a 5. But was this really an upset? The Badgers have certainly been here before. Eleven straight times, in fact, and have made it out of the first round all but once since 2002.

There were other surprises elsewhere Friday:

Cleveland State Dominates No. 5 Seed Wake Forest

MIAMI (AP) -- Some 23 years later, Cleveland State still has a knack for first-round shockers in the NCAA tournament.

The Vikings raced to an early 17-point lead Friday night and stunned one-time top-ranked Wake Forest 84-69. The win was reminiscent of Cleveland State's only other appearance in the tournament in 1986, when it upset Indiana and Bob Knight in the opening round.

The Vikings (26-10) were seeded 14th then; they're 13th in the Midwest region this year.

"We understand what the '86 team did was important for our school," said Norris Cole, who led Cleveland State with 22 points. "But now it's time for a new chapter."

On Sunday, the Vikings will play No. 12 Arizona (20-13), which beat Utah 84-71.

No. 4-seeded Wake Forest (24-7) lost in its first tournament game since 2005. The Demon Deacons won their first 16 games and were No. 1 for a week in January, but they lost their final two games of the season.

Sputtering offense again plagued the Demon Deacons, as it did when they were beaten by Maryland last week in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. They committed 18 turnovers to six by Cleveland State, which held Wake Forest well below its scoring average of 81 points per game.

Demon Deacons season scoring leader Jeff Teague was shut out for the first 13 minutes, totaled two points in the first half and finished with 10, half of his average. James Johnson's trio of 3-pointers kept Wake Forest in the game in the first half, and he finished with 22 points. Al-Farouq Aminu scored 17.

J'Nathan Bullock scored 21 points for Cleveland State, and Cedric Jackson had 19 points and eight assists. Jackson hobbled off the court in the final minute with cramps, but coach Gary Waters said he would be fine.

The upset was the latest sign of revival in the Vikings' program. They went 4-25 in 2003-04 and 10-21 only two years ago, when Waters was in his first season as coach.

Against Wake Forest, Cleveland State had a size disadvantage but found ways to compensate. The section with fans from Ohio erupted in the second half when the 6-foot-3 Jackson dunked after catching an alley-oop inbounds pass from Cole.

By then, much of the arena was rooting on the underdogs.

"We believed from the start of the game that we could play with this team," Cole said.

A three-point play by the Demon Deacons' David Weaver made it 55-49 with 11 minutes left, but the they could get no closer. Cole sank a basket, then hit a breakaway layup following a turnover to put the Vikings up 66-51, and the margin climbed to 73-54 with 3 1/2 minutes left.

"We almost let them back in," Waters said. "I would have been pretty upset about that."

The Vikings went 12-for-15 from the free-throw line in the final five minutes.

Cleveland State started three seniors and Wake Forest none, and the Vikings looked like the more poised team early. They sank their first three shots - two 3-pointers by Jackson and one by Cole - for a 9-0 lead. Meanwhile, the Demon Deacons committed eight turnovers in the first 11 1/2 minutes.

"We had to hit them early in order to be in that game," Waters said. "We surprised them. It took them a while to realize what was occurring out there, and then it became a ballgame."

When the Vikings made five consecutive shots during an 11-2 run, they led 29-12. But they missed their final six shots of the first half, and a pair of 3-pointers by Johnson helped cut the margin to 39-30 at halftime.

Wake Forest freshman center Tony Woods made his first career start in place of Chas McFarland, who had started all but four games in the past two seasons. McFarland entered the game after less than five minutes, but by then the Demon Deacons trailed by 10.

The miracle Vikings of 1986 went on to the regional final before losing in the final seconds to Navy and David Robinson. They now face a rare second-round matchup of low seeds.

Since the NCAA tournament field was expanded to 16 seeds per region in 1985, there have been only seven matchups between teams seeded No. 12 and No. 13. It happened twice last year: Western Kentucky played San Diego and Villanova played Siena, both games taking place in Tampa.

This year's Vikings made the NCAA field only because they won the Horizon League tournament for the first time. It's their first postseason berth of any kind since playing in the NIT in 1988.

Siena Outlasts Ohio State In Double Overtime

DAYTON, Ohio - Siena strikes again. Ronald Moore hit a 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in the second overtime - from the identical spot he made one at the end of the first OT - as the Saints beat eighth-seeded Ohio State 74-72 on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Moore's two clutch shots advanced ninth-seeded Siena (27-7) into Sunday's second round where the Saints will meet Louisville, the tournament's top team. The Cardinals moved on with a 74-54 win over No. 16 seed Morehead State.

Evan Turner missed a leaner from 15 feet that would forced a third OT for the Buckeyes (22-11), who blew an 11-point lead in the second half of regulation.

In earlier games Friday:

Dayton Flies Wright Past WVU

MINNEAPOLIS - Dayton is haunted by Bob Huggins no longer.

Chris Wright scored a career-high 27 points to lead the 11th-seeded Flyers to a 68-60 win over sixth-seeded West Virginia on Friday in the Midwest Regional, their first victory in the NCAA tournament in 19 years.

Charles Little added 18 points for once-mighty Dayton (27-7), which had been 1-13 against Huggins' teams dating to his days storming up and down the Cincinnati sideline.

These Flyers aren't as easily intimidated by his huffing and puffing.

They'll play third-seeded Kansas in the second round Sunday. The Jayhawks defeated North Dakota State 84-74 earlier in the day.

Darryl Bryant had 21 points and Devin Ebanks added 14 points and 12 rebounds for West Virginia (23-12), which had won at least two games in the NCAA tournament in each of its last four appearances.

Wright, the highest of the Flyers from Dayton, threw down a one-handed goal-shaker off an inbounds pass and then a soaring tomahawk dunk in transition to give them a 46-37 lead with 14 minutes left in the game. He converted two three-point plays off dunks, with a vocal voice in the Dayton crowd - his mother Ernestine Grigsby, perhaps? - hollering "Put them in the hole Superman!" while the free throws splashed through.

But Bryant hit two 3-pointers, Ebanks dunked and Da'Sean Butler kissed a jumper off the glass to pull West Virginia within 48-47 with 11 minutes to play.

That's when the Flyers really locked down defensively, holding the Mountaineers to just seven free throws over the next eight minutes to regain control.

Wright's fifth dunk of the game, a LeBron-like hammer in transition, punctuated Dayton's first NCAA tournament win since an 88-86 triumph over Illinois in the first round in 1990.

This was every bit the knockdown, drag-out, parking lot brawl expected from two teams run by hard-nosed coaches who stress defense, rebounding and grit as the only way to victory.

Brian Gregory's Flyers hounded every ball-handler, contested every pass and met each cutter through the lane with a sturdy shoulder and scowl.

West Virginia got here after enduring a brutal Big East season, then beating Notre Dame and Pittsburgh in the conference tournament to cement their bid. In two short years, Huggins has remade the Mountaineers from a team that relied on sneaky backdoor cuts and 3-point shooting under John Beilein to a physical, defensive-minded club in his own image.

The officials called things pretty close in the second half, to the frustration of two teams perfectly content to trade hand checks, hip pointers and the occasional elbow down low.

Believe it or not, the Flyers used to be anything but a "mid" major. Dayton has played in the NCAA tournament 14 times, advanced to the regional semifinals six times and lost to mighty UCLA in the national championship in 1967.

Gregory was hired off Tom Izzo's staff at Michigan State in 2004 to bring some consistency back to a program that had qualified for the tournament only twice the previous 15 seasons.

Eaton helps Oklahoma State edge Volunteers

DAYTON, Ohio - After 40 minutes of give-no-ground basketball, everything opened up for Byron Eaton. Oklahoma State's barrel-chested point guard found a clear path to the basket for a three-point play with 7.2 seconds left Friday, sending the Cowboys to a scintillating 77-75 victory over Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Oklahoma State (23-11) will play either East Tennessee State or Pittsburgh, the top seed in the East Regional. The Panthers sprawled across the first three rows of seats behind the Oklahoma State basket for the start of the second half, doing a little firsthand scouting.

They were gone long before Eaton - a five-sport star in high school who also played a little football - gave the game its final nudge.

He drove the lane untouched, leaned into Tyler Smith and drew the foul as his layup fell through the net and Eaton tumbled to the floor.

"I'm used to that contact," said Eaton, who added the free throw for his 20th point. "I jumped into him a little bit to protect myself and it went my way."

Smith had a chance to win it for Tennessee (21-13), but his jumper from behind the arc hit the side of the rim and bounced up to the top of the backboard as the buzzer sounded. Smith led all scorers with 21 points.

"I knew it was going to come down to the wire," Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said. "If you study our team and their team, that was just the way it was going to be. We figured out how to survive."

Tennessee has reached the NCAA tournament in all four years under coach Bruce Pearl, who's had some of his best coaching moments there - starting with his emergency stint as the Boston College mascot for one game in the 1981 tournament.

This wasn't one of them. He left the floor complaining to the referees that Smith was fouled on the final shot.

No matter how it turned out, this NCAA appearance amounted to a big step forward for Oklahoma State, which advanced to the Final Four in 2004, then fell on hard times. The Cowboys were relegated to the NIT the last three years, prompting them to hire Travis Ford as coach.

Even though it was a transition season in Stillwater - Ford estimates that he's installed perhaps 60 percent of his offensive and defensive systems - Oklahoma State was finally back playing with the big boys. His feistiness seemed to rub off on the Cowboys, giving them an edge they'd lacked.

Ford's fiery demeanor temporarily cost them on Friday.

Unhappy over a call, he took his complaint to the officials during a timeout and got a technical from Mike Sanzere. The two free throws were part of a five-point spurt that gave Tennessee its biggest lead at 32-25 and made Ford even more irate - he berated Sanzere on the sideline a short time later and got an equally edgy reply.

With their free-flowing style, the Cowboys are accustomed to overcoming big leads and giving them away. Eaton hit a pair of pull-up jumpers in a 13-2 run that closed the half and put Oklahoma State up 38-34.

The stocky, 5-foot-11 guard also had a hand - two of them, actually - in a tone-setting moment during the run. He and Tennessee's Wayne Chism, a 6-foot-9 forward who weighs 242 pounds, wrapped their arms around a rebound and wouldn't let go. Chism yanked and they both tumbled to the ground, but Eaton refused to let give up the ball.

Ford liked that.

Oklahoma State tried to set the run-and-shoot style that made it one of the nation's highest-scoring teams. Tennessee stuck with its halfcourt game, trying to take advantage inside.

It was a stalemate - 10 ties, 17 lead changes - until Eaton, who was playing in his first NCAA game, found that final opening.

"It was one of my goals to get here and win some games. I just wish it had come a little sooner in my career," the senior said.

Harden's lone basket key for Arizona State

James Harden made only one field goal Friday, and it was a big one.

Arizona State's season scoring leader struggled most of the game but sank a 3-pointer with 4:02 left, helping the Sun Devils hold off Temple 66-57 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Harden went 1-for-8 and was held to nine points, less than half his average. Junior Derek Glasser scored a career-high 22 points and Jeff Pendergraph also had 22 for the Sun Devils, playing in the tournament for the first time since 2003.

Dionte Christmas scored 29 to lead Temple.

Sixth-seeded Arizona State (25-9) reached the 25-win milestone for the first time since 1975 and will play Sunday against Syracuse (27-9), which beat Stephen F. Austin 59-44.

No. 11-seed Temple (22-12) was eliminated in the opening round for the second year in a row and hasn't won a tournament game since 2001.

Temple never led and trailed by eight midway through the second half before making a charge. Christmas scored three consecutive baskets to cut the margin to 52-49, the smallest since early in the game, but the Owls could get no closer.

After Harden missed his first six shots, his 3-pointer put Arizona State ahead 56-49. The Pac-10 player of the year sank a pair of free throws on the Sun Devils' next possession, and they led by at least four the rest of the way.

The Sun Devils clinched the win by making six consecutive free throws in the final 40 seconds, including four by Glasser.

Harden's performance was reminiscent of last week's Pac-10 tournament championship game, when he missed a free throw, layup and 3-pointer in the final minute and scored 10 points in a loss to Southern Cal.

He seemed reluctant to shoot against Temple, taking only two attempts in the first half. He did finish with seven rebounds, three steals and three assists and was 6-for-9 from the line.

While Harden struggled offensively, his teammates combined to shoot 19-for-31 (61 percent). Glasser scored 17 points in the first half and finished 4-for-5 from 3-point range.

Christmas played all 40 minutes and went 5-for-11 from 3-point range, but the rest of the Owls shot only 11-for-35 (31 percent) from the field.

Arizona State made six shots in a row, including three by Glasser, to build its biggest lead at 29-16 less than 12 minutes into the game.

The Sun Devils went the next eight possessions without a point, and Temple closed to 29-26. Glasser then sank consecutive 3-pointers, giving Arizona State a 35-26 lead.

Collins, Aldrich keep KU moving

MINNEAPOLIS - Cole Aldrich's long arms emerged above the lane to snatch the rebound and slam it in, drawing a foul he turned into a three-point play and a nine-point Kansas lead with just less than 2 minutes left.

North Dakota State's upset pursuit had the support of the crowd, but the lanky yet powerful Aldrich was too hard to guard in his return home.

Sherron Collins scored a season-high 32 points and went basket for basket with NDSU star Ben Woodside, while Aldrich finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds to help the defending NCAA champion Jayhawks hold off the 14th-seeded Bison 84-74 in the first round Friday.

Kansas (26-7) was ahead the entire second half, but the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region rarely led by double digits.

"We had to get tougher today to win, and that's a good thing," Kansas coach Bill Self said.

Woodside's 37 points led Self to declare him the best guard his team faced this season, and his third 3-pointer pulled North Dakota State (26-7) to 73-67 with 2:25 remaining. But Aldrich's one-motion putback, his eighth dunk of the game, on the next possession essentially ended the Bison's hope.

"It's tough," Woodside said, "because you're worried about him inside but also you're worried about their shooters in the corner."

Syracuse rolls over Stephen F. Austin

MIAMI -Jonny Flynn and Paul Harris stood in the Syracuse locker room before tip-off, imploring teammates to dash Stephen F. Austin's upset hopes before they could even begin.

As usual, the Orange listened to their leaders — then went out and won their first NCAA tournament game in exactly five years.

Flynn scored 16 points, Rick Jackson and Arinze Onuaku each added 12 and third-seeded Syracuse cruised past NCAA first-timer Stephen F. Austin 59-44 Friday in a South regional matchup.

Syracuse (27-9) ran out to a 20-4 lead over the overmatched Southland Conference champs, and will meet Arizona State in Sunday's second round.

"This is what you play for," Flynn said. "You don't come into the season saying you're playing for the Big East championship. You're playing for the NCAA championship."

Marquette holds off Utah State

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Lazar Hayward scored Marquette's first and last points.

He had plenty of big plays in between, too, scoring 26 to lead the Golden Eagles to a 58-57 win over Utah State in the first round of the West Regional.

Hayward, who was averaging 16 points, scored Marquette's first 10 points and was almost perfect from the foul line as the Golden Eagles held off the Aggies.

"He's a big-time player and I still don't think he gets enough credit," said Wesley Matthews, who had 11 points for Marquette. "If you want to play off of Lazar that's fine. We'll just pass it to him all the time."

The Golden Eagles blew a 14-point lead, then overcame a 49-43 deficit. Hayward spurred the comeback, muscling for key baskets and rebounds and drawing a couple of big fouls.

Hayward and Matthews both shot 5-for-6 from the foul line, where the Golden Eagles (25-9) ended up winning the game. Marquette hit 14 of 17 free throws in the second half, making 10 straight during a late stretch that put the Golden Eagles back up for good.

"For us to have a chance, we definitely have to get to the free throw line," said Marquette coach Buzz Williams, who made his NCAA tournament debut.

Jerel McNeal added 14 points for sixth-seeded Marquette, which will play Missouri in the second round.

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