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Sunday Recap: North Carolina tops century mark for second time
By Aaron Beard, AP Sports Writer
Monday, March 24, 2008 | No comments posted.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Wayne Ellington has spent the past year thinking about the last-second shot he missed in regulation against Georgetown that would have sent North Carolina to the Final Four. Instead, the Hoyas won in overtime and sent the Tar Heels home with visions of what might have been.
Now, after two dominating NCAA tournament performances, the Tar Heels look like a team that hasn’t forgotten.
“I think everybody realizes it’s tournament time,” Ellington said after North Carolina’s 108-77 win over Arkansas on Sunday. “You lose a game, your season’s over. (We’re) coming out and leaving everything on the line every game.”
So far, top-seeded North Carolina has made everything look easy in the East Regional, running out to big early leads and cracking the 100-point mark with plenty of time left on the clock. The Tar Heels now head to Charlotte to face fourth-seeded Washington State for the round of 16 in front of what is sure to be another home-state crowd.
They started with a 113-74 win against No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary’s. Then came an equally dominating performance that made North Carolina the first team to score 100 points in its first two NCAA games since Loyola Marymount did it against New Mexico State and Michigan in 1990.
On Sunday, North Carolina scored the first nine points, led 51-26 at halftime and shot 68 percent for the game against a team that had upset Vanderbilt and Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference tournament last week.
“We had everything working on all cylinders,” said Ty Lawson, who had 19 points.
Even hard-to-please coach Roy Williams, who can always find something to worry about, couldn’t deny how sharp his team looked in Raleigh, about a half-hour drive from the Chapel Hill campus.
“We were pretty doggone good,” he said. “We really were.”
It marked only the third time in the past 25 years that the Tar Heels won both of their first two NCAA games by 20 or more points. The only other teams to do it — 1993 and 2005 — went on to win the national championship. The Tar Heels also tied the school’s single-season record for victories, matching the ’93 team and the 1998 squad that reached the Final Four in San Antonio.
North Carolina improved to 23-1 in NCAA games played in its home state.
Sonny Weems had 19 points to lead the ninth-seeded Razorbacks (23-12), who earned their first NCAA win in nine years by beating Indiana in Friday’s first round. But Arkansas got no closer than 21 points in the second half, prompting coach John Pelphrey to quip, “We probably could’ve started six today, and I don’t know if that would’ve helped or not.”
“If they play like this, I don’t think anybody in the nation can beat them,” Weems said. “They’re not the No. 1 team in the nation for no reason.”
The Tar Heels didn’t get a particularly big day from All-American Tyler Hansbrough, who finished with 17 points on 6-for-14 shooting. But he made five of seven free throws, which allowed him to surpass Duke’s Christian Laettner for the most made free throws in a career for an ACC player.
Deon Thompson finished with 16 points on 8-for-8 shooting for North Carolina, and frontcourt mate Alex Stepheson had 10 on 5-for-5 shooting. Eleven players scored for the Tar Heels, and Williams was able to empty his bench and give his regulars plenty of time to cheer from the sideline for the second straight game.
North Carolina finished with 28 assists and just seven turnovers, moving the ball with ease to get plenty of open looks and earn its 13th straight win.
“We don’t think that winning two games in the NCAA tournament is a huge success for us,” junior Marcus Ginyard said. “Coach just talked about it in the locker room: we’ve got another two-game tournament to play next weekend. And that’s what we’re focused on right now. At this point, this game does not mean anything to us any more. This is just not where this team wants to end up.”
Louisville 78, Oklahoma 48
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Earl Clark scored 14 points and Louisville handed Oklahoma its most-lopsided loss in the NCAA tournament, building a 44-22 halftime lead and coasting from there.
Louisville matched its biggest rout in the NCAA tournament, having trounced Kansas State by 30 in 1968. Starting five players born outside Kentucky, the third-seeded Cardinals (26-8) reached the round of 16 for the first time since 2005. They will take on Tennessee, which beat Butler 76-71 in overtime, on Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C.
David Godbold hit four 3s and finished with 15 points for sixth-seeded Oklahoma (23-12). Star freshman Blake Griffin was held without a shot for 12 minutes and had eight points.
Tennessee 76, Butler 71, OT
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — JaJuan Smith hit four straight free throws in the final 13.6 seconds of overtime and the Volunteers survived a game they nearly turned into a rout.
The Vols (31-4) scored six straight points inside after the Bulldogs took their first lead in the final 2 minutes of OT, including benched guard Ramar Smith’s basket with 27 seconds left to make it 72-68. That after Tennessee led by 13 early in the game.
A.J. Graves led Butler (30-4) with 21 points on just 6-of-18 shooting. Mike Green added 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists before fouling out late in overtime.
It was the first time two teams with 30 wins played each other in the second round.
West Regional
Western Kentucky 72, San Diego 63
TAMPA, Fla. — Behind Courtney Lee’s dazzling first-half performance and some clutch shooting down the stretch, the 12th-seeded Hilltoppers advanced to the round of 16 for the first time in 15 years and have a date with top-seeded UCLA in Phoenix.
Lee finished with 29 points, including a huge 3-pointer that gave his team the lead for good with 6:17 remaining. Six straight free throws in the final 34 seconds sealed the victory.
Tyrone Brazelton added 15 points for the Hilltoppers (29-6).
Gyno Pomare had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Toreros (22-14), who overcame a 15-point deficit in the second half before fading in the closing minutes.
South Regional
Texas 75, Miami 72
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A.J. Abrams calmly sank two free throws with 9.5 seconds remaining, giving the second-seeded Longhorns just enough margin to hold off Miami.
Abrams gave Texas a 74-69 lead, but the Longhorns weren’t quite safe yet. Miami’s Raymond Hicks made a 3-pointer, and D.J. Augustin then shot an air ball on his first of two free throws with 1.8 seconds to play. Augustin made the second, though, to preserve the win.
Abrams scored 26 points on six 3-pointers for the second consecutive game. Texas (30-6) advances to the regional semifinals to play third-seeded Stanford on Friday in Houston.
Jack McClinton scored 18 points for Miami (23-11).
Memphis 77, Mississippi State 74
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Joey Dorsey had 13 points, 12 rebounds, a season-high six blocks and an untold number of bumps and bruises, helping Memphis wins its ninth straight and advance to the round of 16 for the third straight year.
Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts added 17 points each for the Tigers (35-1), who will play fifth-seeded Michigan State (27-8) in the regional semifinals on Friday.
Jamont Gordon had 21 points and Ben Hansbrough 19 for eighth-seeded Mississippi State (23-11), which hasn’t made it out of the first weekend since the 1996 team went to the Final Four.
Gordon’s layup cut the Mississippi State deficit to 76-74 with 4.2 seconds left, but Douglas-Roberts made a free throw and Gordon’s long jumper at the buzzer wasn’t close.
Midwest Regional
Villanova 84, Siena 72
TAMPA, Fla. — Scottie Reynolds scored 25 points and Corey Stokes added 20 as the 12th-seeded Wildcats beat tiny Siena to reach the round of 16 for the third time in four years.
Villanova (22-12), one of the last teams picked for the tournament field, advanced to play top-seeded Kansas (33-3) in the regional semifinals.
Alex Franklin led Siena (23-11) with 18 points, but the Saints didn’t get the kind of performances they needed from Kenny Hasbrouck, Edwin Ubiles and Tay Fisher, who all played major roles in the team’s 21-point upset of fourth-seeded Vanderbilt in the first round.
Hasbrouck had 17 points, but was only 5-of-15 from the field. Ubiles missed his first seven shots and finished 3-of-11 for 12 points, while Fisher was held to five points.
Now, after two dominating NCAA tournament performances, the Tar Heels look like a team that hasn’t forgotten.
“I think everybody realizes it’s tournament time,” Ellington said after North Carolina’s 108-77 win over Arkansas on Sunday. “You lose a game, your season’s over. (We’re) coming out and leaving everything on the line every game.”
So far, top-seeded North Carolina has made everything look easy in the East Regional, running out to big early leads and cracking the 100-point mark with plenty of time left on the clock. The Tar Heels now head to Charlotte to face fourth-seeded Washington State for the round of 16 in front of what is sure to be another home-state crowd.
They started with a 113-74 win against No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary’s. Then came an equally dominating performance that made North Carolina the first team to score 100 points in its first two NCAA games since Loyola Marymount did it against New Mexico State and Michigan in 1990.
On Sunday, North Carolina scored the first nine points, led 51-26 at halftime and shot 68 percent for the game against a team that had upset Vanderbilt and Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference tournament last week.
“We had everything working on all cylinders,” said Ty Lawson, who had 19 points.
Even hard-to-please coach Roy Williams, who can always find something to worry about, couldn’t deny how sharp his team looked in Raleigh, about a half-hour drive from the Chapel Hill campus.
“We were pretty doggone good,” he said. “We really were.”
It marked only the third time in the past 25 years that the Tar Heels won both of their first two NCAA games by 20 or more points. The only other teams to do it — 1993 and 2005 — went on to win the national championship. The Tar Heels also tied the school’s single-season record for victories, matching the ’93 team and the 1998 squad that reached the Final Four in San Antonio.
North Carolina improved to 23-1 in NCAA games played in its home state.
Sonny Weems had 19 points to lead the ninth-seeded Razorbacks (23-12), who earned their first NCAA win in nine years by beating Indiana in Friday’s first round. But Arkansas got no closer than 21 points in the second half, prompting coach John Pelphrey to quip, “We probably could’ve started six today, and I don’t know if that would’ve helped or not.”
“If they play like this, I don’t think anybody in the nation can beat them,” Weems said. “They’re not the No. 1 team in the nation for no reason.”
The Tar Heels didn’t get a particularly big day from All-American Tyler Hansbrough, who finished with 17 points on 6-for-14 shooting. But he made five of seven free throws, which allowed him to surpass Duke’s Christian Laettner for the most made free throws in a career for an ACC player.
Deon Thompson finished with 16 points on 8-for-8 shooting for North Carolina, and frontcourt mate Alex Stepheson had 10 on 5-for-5 shooting. Eleven players scored for the Tar Heels, and Williams was able to empty his bench and give his regulars plenty of time to cheer from the sideline for the second straight game.
North Carolina finished with 28 assists and just seven turnovers, moving the ball with ease to get plenty of open looks and earn its 13th straight win.
“We don’t think that winning two games in the NCAA tournament is a huge success for us,” junior Marcus Ginyard said. “Coach just talked about it in the locker room: we’ve got another two-game tournament to play next weekend. And that’s what we’re focused on right now. At this point, this game does not mean anything to us any more. This is just not where this team wants to end up.”
Louisville 78, Oklahoma 48
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Earl Clark scored 14 points and Louisville handed Oklahoma its most-lopsided loss in the NCAA tournament, building a 44-22 halftime lead and coasting from there.
Louisville matched its biggest rout in the NCAA tournament, having trounced Kansas State by 30 in 1968. Starting five players born outside Kentucky, the third-seeded Cardinals (26-8) reached the round of 16 for the first time since 2005. They will take on Tennessee, which beat Butler 76-71 in overtime, on Thursday night in Charlotte, N.C.
David Godbold hit four 3s and finished with 15 points for sixth-seeded Oklahoma (23-12). Star freshman Blake Griffin was held without a shot for 12 minutes and had eight points.
Tennessee 76, Butler 71, OT
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — JaJuan Smith hit four straight free throws in the final 13.6 seconds of overtime and the Volunteers survived a game they nearly turned into a rout.
The Vols (31-4) scored six straight points inside after the Bulldogs took their first lead in the final 2 minutes of OT, including benched guard Ramar Smith’s basket with 27 seconds left to make it 72-68. That after Tennessee led by 13 early in the game.
A.J. Graves led Butler (30-4) with 21 points on just 6-of-18 shooting. Mike Green added 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists before fouling out late in overtime.
It was the first time two teams with 30 wins played each other in the second round.
West Regional
Western Kentucky 72, San Diego 63
TAMPA, Fla. — Behind Courtney Lee’s dazzling first-half performance and some clutch shooting down the stretch, the 12th-seeded Hilltoppers advanced to the round of 16 for the first time in 15 years and have a date with top-seeded UCLA in Phoenix.
Lee finished with 29 points, including a huge 3-pointer that gave his team the lead for good with 6:17 remaining. Six straight free throws in the final 34 seconds sealed the victory.
Tyrone Brazelton added 15 points for the Hilltoppers (29-6).
Gyno Pomare had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Toreros (22-14), who overcame a 15-point deficit in the second half before fading in the closing minutes.
South Regional
Texas 75, Miami 72
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A.J. Abrams calmly sank two free throws with 9.5 seconds remaining, giving the second-seeded Longhorns just enough margin to hold off Miami.
Abrams gave Texas a 74-69 lead, but the Longhorns weren’t quite safe yet. Miami’s Raymond Hicks made a 3-pointer, and D.J. Augustin then shot an air ball on his first of two free throws with 1.8 seconds to play. Augustin made the second, though, to preserve the win.
Abrams scored 26 points on six 3-pointers for the second consecutive game. Texas (30-6) advances to the regional semifinals to play third-seeded Stanford on Friday in Houston.
Jack McClinton scored 18 points for Miami (23-11).
Memphis 77, Mississippi State 74
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Joey Dorsey had 13 points, 12 rebounds, a season-high six blocks and an untold number of bumps and bruises, helping Memphis wins its ninth straight and advance to the round of 16 for the third straight year.
Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts added 17 points each for the Tigers (35-1), who will play fifth-seeded Michigan State (27-8) in the regional semifinals on Friday.
Jamont Gordon had 21 points and Ben Hansbrough 19 for eighth-seeded Mississippi State (23-11), which hasn’t made it out of the first weekend since the 1996 team went to the Final Four.
Gordon’s layup cut the Mississippi State deficit to 76-74 with 4.2 seconds left, but Douglas-Roberts made a free throw and Gordon’s long jumper at the buzzer wasn’t close.
Midwest Regional
Villanova 84, Siena 72
TAMPA, Fla. — Scottie Reynolds scored 25 points and Corey Stokes added 20 as the 12th-seeded Wildcats beat tiny Siena to reach the round of 16 for the third time in four years.
Villanova (22-12), one of the last teams picked for the tournament field, advanced to play top-seeded Kansas (33-3) in the regional semifinals.
Alex Franklin led Siena (23-11) with 18 points, but the Saints didn’t get the kind of performances they needed from Kenny Hasbrouck, Edwin Ubiles and Tay Fisher, who all played major roles in the team’s 21-point upset of fourth-seeded Vanderbilt in the first round.
Hasbrouck had 17 points, but was only 5-of-15 from the field. Ubiles missed his first seven shots and finished 3-of-11 for 12 points, while Fisher was held to five points.
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