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Griffin, Oklahoma Overpower Michigan

The Associated Press

Connecticut's Gavin Edwards and Texas A&M's Bryan Davis scramble for the ball during their second-round matchup.

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The Associated Press

Published: March 21, 2009

Updated: 03/21/2009 11:25 pm

KANSAS CITY - Bulling through double teams and soaring in for vicious dunks, Blake Griffin finished with 33 points and 14 rebounds to power Oklahoma to a 73-63 victory over Michigan on Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Sooners (29-5), the top seed in the South Region, advanced to play the Syracuse-Arizona State winner in next week's regional semifinals in Memphis, Tenn.

The 10th-seeded Wolverines (21-14) pulled off a mild upset in the opening round by withstanding Clemson's relentless pressure, but couldn't handle Griffin's tenacity to make it two upsets in a row.

Calhoun, UConn beat Texas A&M
PHILADELPHIA - Jim Calhoun and UConn are both back in familiar spots.

Calhoun returned to his regular seat on the bench and led the Huskies to another berth in the round of 16.

A.J. Price scored 27 points, Jeff Adrien had 23 and Connecticut dominated Texas A&M from the opening tip in a 92-66 victory on Saturday, putting the Huskies in the round of 16 for the 12th time under their Hall of Fame coach.

"Are we special yet?" Calhoun said. "A couple of wins from now, we're going to have an idea."

After getting treatment for dehydration and missing Connecticut's first-round game, Calhoun came back and never had to worry. The Huskies scored the first 10 points and kept pulling away for their second straight NCAA blowout.

Stanley Robinson had 12 points for the top-seeded Huskies (29-4), who will play the Washington-Purdue winner in the West Region semifinals in Glendale, Ariz.

'Nova reaches round of 16 with 89-69 win over UCLA
PHILADELPHIA - Rollie Massimino sat on the edge of his seat, rooting on his former team from behind the bench. By the end, he was leaning back in his chair and soaking it in.

No need to sweat this one out, Coach. The Wildcats had it all the way.

Dante Cunningham scored 18 points Saturday, helping Villanova reach the round of 16 for the fourth time in five years with an 89-69 victory over UCLA that ended the Bruins' bid for a fourth straight Final Four appearance.

"That was a fun game to be a part of," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "We have so much respect for the UCLA tradition. They are tough. To get to three straight Final Fours is amazing. You get fired up to play a team like that."

Corey Fisher and Reggie Redding each had 13 points for the third-seeded Wildcats (28-7), who will play the Texas-Duke winner in the East Region semifinals in Boston.

Josh Shipp led UCLA with 18 points and Darren Collison had 15. It's the earliest exit for the sixth-seeded Bruins (26-9) since a first-round loss in the 2005 NCAA tournament.

"They did a good job spreading us out and they're a very good shooting team," Bruins coach Ben Howland said. "They did a good job of attacking the rim. I think they have a real chance to move forward in this tournament."

Bulldogs Dash To Last-Second Win
PORTLAND - Freshman Demetri Goodson streaked the length of the court and made a short, running bank shot with 0.9 seconds left, lifting fourth-seeded Gonzaga past Western Kentucky 83-81 Saturday night.

Gonzaga (28-5) advanced to the South Region semifinals against top-seeded North Carolina on Friday in Memphis, Tenn.

Steffphon Pettigrew hit a tip-in for the 12th-seeded Hilltoppers (25-9) that tied it at 81 with 7.2 seconds left. But Goodson took the inbounds pass and went straight to the basket, hitting from close on the left side.

Western Kentucky, which made a surprise run to the region semifinals last year, was led by Orlando Mendez-Valdez with 25 points.

This was the 11th straight victory for the Zags, who won the West Coast Conference regular-season title and tournament. The Hilltoppers won the Sun Belt Conference.

Josh Heytvelt's layup with 7:34 left made it 67-64, and he made a bank shot and free throw that put Gonzaga ahead 81-72 with 2:14 left.

But Mendez-Valdez hit a 3-pointer to make it 81-77 with 1:30 to go. After a Zags turnover, Mendez-Valdez hit Pettigrew for a breakaway dunk with 58.7 seconds left that made it 81-79. Pettigrew's tip-in tied it.

Matt Bouldin had 20 points and eight rebounds for Gonzaga. Jeremy Pargo added 18 points.

Mendez-Valdez hit seven 3-pointers for the Hilltoppers, who had won eight straight going into the game. A.J. Slaughter added 24 points.

Lawson Lifts Tar Heels
GREENSBORO - No one has ever doubted Ty Lawson's talent, speed or ability to take over a game for North Carolina. Maybe now Lawson won't hear questions about whether he's tough enough, too.

Lawson scored 21 of his 23 points after halftime in his return from a toe injury, and his three-point play sparked the decisive second-half run as North Carolina held off LSU 84-70 in the South Region.

Wayne Ellington scored 23 points to lead the Tar Heels (30-4), who ran off 11 straight points in a tie game to take control and move on to next week's region semifinals in Memphis, Tenn. North Carolina will face Gonzaga.

Lawson had missed the previous three games after he jammed his right toe in practice two days before the regular-season finale against Duke.

Fans greeted him with a loud roar that drowned out his name during starting lineups, but the speedy junior didn't look like he was at 100 percent early on. He seemed hesitant when pushing the ball up the floor, and at one point in the first half came out of the game, took off his shoe and was in obvious discomfort while a trainer looked at him.

But the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year got better as the game wore on, helping the Tar Heels rally from a five-point deficit midway through the second half to beat the eighth-seeded Tigers (27-8).

Lawson finished 7-for-13 from the floor to go with six assists and no turnovers in 31 minutes.

Tigers Tear Apart Terrapins
KANSAS CITY - His teammates weren't going to let Roburt Sallie have all the fun in this NCAA Tournament.

Bouncing back from a first-round malaise that might have sunk them if not for Sallie's record-setting shooting, Memphis hit a sizzling 70 percent in the first half Saturday and rolled past Maryland 89-70 in the second round of the West Region.

All of a sudden the Tigers looked and felt like the team that rode a 25-game winning streak into the tournament they nearly won a year ago.

"Everybody was hitting out there," said Shawn Taggart, who had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds in the start-to-finish domination of the 10th-seeded Terps. "I mean everybody. We were out there shooting the ball very well, and defense was on point today."

Sallie, the surprise hero of Thursday's hard-fought victory over No. 15 seed Cal State Northridge, came off the bench and kept up his 3-point onslaught by hitting his first three, making him 13-for-19 for the tourney.

But in the meantime, Tyreke Evans scored 19 points and was one of five Tigers with at least 13.

"For me, watching college basketball all my life and now I'm actually here," said the freshman point guard. "But we've still got business to do in trying to win a championship."

Next up for the Tigers will be the winner of today's Missouri-Marquette game.

The second-seeded Tigers (33-3) knocked the Terps (21-14) on the ropes with a 9-0 run in the opening minutes and led by as many as 23 while mounting a 53-33 halftime lead.

Boilermakers Hold Off Huskies
PORTLAND - Purdue was teetering. Desperate Washington was roaring back. The Huskies' close-to-home crowd was screaming. And the stifling intensity that makes the NCAA Tournament so popular blanketed the court.

Amid all that, JaJuan Johnson stood tallest.

As if on a pogo stick, Johnson blocked not one but two attempts by Washington to tie the game with a minute remaining. He also scored 22 points as the fifth-seeded Boilermakers held off a frantic charge to beat the fourth-seeded Huskies 76-74 Saturday to advance to its first region semifinals since 2000.

"We finally got over the hump!" E'Twaun Moore said in the hallway of the arena minutes after his clinching free throws with 5.5 seconds remaining for the Boilermakers (27-9). The Big Ten tournament champions led the entire game but nearly blew a 14-point lead.

Now comes top-seeded Connecticut.

"A lot of people talk about offensive possessions and making shots. It always comes down to making stops," Purdue coach Matt Painter said of the 6-foot-10 Johnson denying Isaiah Thomas' dash to the basket and then Quincy Pondexter's short jumper in the lane with 57.8 seconds left.

Thomas scored 24 points, Pondexter had 20 with 10 rebounds and Jon Brockman added 20 points with 18 rebounds - the 60th and final double-double of his career for the nation's active leader in those - for Washington (26-9). The Pac-10 regular-season champion trailed by 14 early in the second half before getting to within two five times in the final 7:13, but never was able to tie or go ahead.

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