Georgia Tech 79, Kansas 71, OT\nST. LOUIS -- When the final buzzer sounded, the entire Georgia Tech team rushed together to pile into a group hug on the floor.\nHow fitting.\nWith top-scorer B.J. Elder hobbled by a badly sprained ankle, someone else had to step up. Jarrett Jack and the rest of the Yellow Jackets did better than that, beating Kansas 79-71 in overtime Sunday to advance to their first Final Four since 1990.\n"A lot was on the line," said Jack, who scored eight of his career-high 29 points in overtime. "B.J. being out, we all knew we had to step up. I just really got it going and kept attacking until the game was over."\nNo team had more tight games on its road to the Final Four than the third-seeded Yellow Jackets. Their first three games in the St. Louis Regional were decided by a total of 13 points.\nBut Georgia Tech (27-9) has been unflappable all season, beating Connecticut when the Huskies were ranked No. 1 and winning at Duke and Wake Forest. So facing the favored Jayhawks, even without Elder, was no big deal. Even when the game went to overtime.\nAfter little Will Bynum hit a big three-pointer to break a 71-all tie, Jack went 4 for 4 from the line in the last 47 seconds to seal the win.\nJack finished 8 of 12 from the floor, and had nine rebounds and six assists. Luke Schenscher added 15 points, and Clarence Moore matched his season high with 14 for the Yellow Jackets.\nAs the final seconds ticked off the clock, coach Paul Hewitt threw his hands in the air in triumph and a wide grin spread across his face. The Yellow Jackets poured onto the court and into a pile when the buzzer sounded. Elder's teammates tried to lift him up, but they couldn't get him off the ground as the impromptu mosh pit bopped around.\nThe Yellow Jackets will now face second-seeded Oklahoma State Saturday in San Antonio.\n"A lot of basketball teams across the country are close on the court, but off the court, they go their separate ways," said Isma'il Muhammad, who took the charge in overtime that gave Keith Langford has fifth foul. "This team, we all stick together and do things together.\n"We're very close on the court and off the court, and I think that contributes to our success."\nFourth-seeded Kansas (24-9) could do little but watch the Georgia Tech lovefest with disappointment, denied a third straight trip to the Final Four.\nBut these Jayhawks didn't play like a Final Four team. They shot 40 percent from the floor and turned the ball over 15 times. Wayne Simien, who'd been averaging 20 points in the tournament, was held to 11 on 4 of 14 shooting. Langford scored 15 on 4 of 11.\nIt was the Jayhawks' first loss in a regional final since March 26, 1996, when they lost to Syracuse.\n"It's disappointing, but that's how it is," Langford said. "We knew they don't automatically put you in there. We'll go back, take care of our wounds and get ready for next year."\nThough Georgia Tech was seeded one spot better, it came into the game as an underdog. The Jayhawks had the experience and the momentum, having won their first three tournament games by 22 points.\nThey even had a domeful of fans, playing just five hours away from their campus in Lawrence, Kan.\nAs if that wasn't enough, the Yellow Jackets were playing with a gimpy Elder. Elder, who averaged a team-high 15.8 points, severely sprained an ankle in Friday night's regional.\nHe started but was limping and couldn't run close to full speed.\n"I felt in warmups that I wouldn't be able to go very long," said Elder, who played only 12 minutes and had one assist. "I did what I could. I made a couple of passes. I got a couple of rebounds. I just had to leave it up to the other guys."\nAnd they got it done.\nThe Yellow Jackets had their way with the Jayhawks early, smothering them defensively and holding Simien and Langford to a combined four points on 0 for 10 shooting. The Yellow Jackets led by as much as 11 in the first half and were up 40-33 with 16:39 left in regulation.\n"They really came with the doubles really quick most of the night," Simien said. "I felt good. It just wasn't falling for me."\nBut Simien and Langford finally broke loose, and Kansas came roaring back.\nLangford scored on a driving layup -- his first field goal of the day -- and Simien ran off five quick points to give Kansas a 43-42 lead, its first, with 13:04 to play. The pro-Kansas crowd went wild, and the Jayhawks' bench sprinted onto the floor when a timeout was called seconds later.\nJack was fouled by Aaron Miles with 39 seconds left, and he made the front end of a one-and-one to put the Yellow Jackets up 66-63. But he missed the second, and Simien grabbed the rebound.\nSimien missed a short hook at the other end, but Jeff Graves came up with the ball in the scramble and kicked it out to freshman J.R. Giddens, who calmly drilled a three-pointer to tie the game at 66 with 16 seconds left.\nThe Yellow Jackets had a chance to win it in regulation, but Lewis missed a layup and Bynum couldn't get the tip to fall.\n"We had momentum," Miles said. "It was like we had a little breath of fresh air. We had second life."\nIt didn't last. After Michael Lee scored on a layup to tie the game at 71, Bynum put Georgia Tech ahead for good by drilling a three-pointer.\nNow Georgia Tech is on its way to San Antonio, where Bynum will match up with high school teammate Tony Allen of Oklahoma State.\n"I take my hat off to Georgia Tech," Miles said. "Jarrett Jack made a lot of plays for them. Every time they needed something, boom! He was there for them."
Oklahoma State 64, Saint Joseph's 62\nEAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The kid with the famous NBA name showed college basketball's player of the year how to do it.\nJohn Lucas hit a three-pointer with 6.9 seconds left, Jameer Nelson missed right before the buzzer and Oklahoma State held off Saint Joseph's 64-62 in a thriller Saturday night for a trip to the Final Four.\n"I made sure my feet were under me and just shot it," Lucas said. Asked if he knew it was good the moment he let fly, he said, "Absolutely."\nAnd then in an NCAA tournament marked by late misses, it happened again.\nNelson's fadeaway jumper from above the foul line ticked off the rim, and the East Rutherford regional ended with the unanimous All-American sitting on the court, beyond the top of the key. His disbelieving teammates scattered around, bent over at the hips and staring down.\n"Every time I shoot the ball, I think it's in," Nelson said.\nThe last rebound fittingly landed in Lucas' arms, and he cradled the ball. He celebrated by racing toward the stands and jumping into his dad's arms for a hearty embrace.\nThe family has seen a lot of big shots -- the elder Lucas was a former No. 1 NBA pick and enjoyed a stellar career before becoming a pro coach. Now the son has a moment to call his own.\n"We really didn't say too much of anything, we were just hugging each other and rejoicing," the Cowboys star said.\nA day earlier, Lucas spoke glowingly about Nelson's skill and style, admiring the giant tattoo that stretched across his opponent's back, reading "All Eyes on Me."\n"He plays that way, and he lives up to it," Lucas said at the time. "Tomorrow night, maybe all eyes will be on me."\nWere they ever.\nCoach Eddie Sutton and Oklahoma State (31-3) thought they deserved to be a top seed more than Saint Joseph's (30-2) -- a view held by many people and given voice by CBS analyst Billy Packer.\nThe Cowboys proved it the right way, on the court, and advanced to play the Kansas-Georgia Tech winner next Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.\nThe Hawks headed back to their small campus in Philadelphia, the feel-good story of the year in college basketball finally over.\n"They will remember this team at Saint Joe's for a long time," Packer said.\nLucas shot 7 for 20 and scored 19 points, including the final five of the game.\n"I had a horrible first half. I shot three airballs. I never shoot airballs," he said. "I told myself in the locker room at halftime that I was going to step up."\nIt was a frenzied final minute, played without a timeout, as the 68-year-old Sutton and counterpart Phil Martelli let the players decide it.\nLucas' jumper put Oklahoma State ahead with 41 seconds left before Saint Joseph's, again relying on outside shots, regained a 62-61 lead on Pat Carroll's three-pointer with 29.9 seconds to go.\nLucas then got free on the left wing and hit the biggest shot of his career. Nelson tried to answer, but his shot over Daniel Bobik was off-target.\n"He's the best player in America. He's been doing it all season," Carroll said. "Who better would you like to have the ball in their hands?"\nOklahoma State earned its first Final Four trip since Sutton took them there in 1995, when Bryant "Big Country" Reeves helped the Cowboys win the regional final on the same Meadowlands court.\nReeves was in attendance as Sutton got his third trip overall after also making it with Arkansas.\n"I probably won't have too many more opportunities to get there," Sutton said. "I won't be coaching forever."\nJoey Graham added 17 points, Tony Allen had 12 and Ivan McFarlin had nine points and 12 rebounds.\nMcFarlin and Terrence Crawford are the only Oklahoma State players left from 2001, when a plane crash killed two players and eight members of the Cowboys' basketball family.\nLucas is familiar with tragedy, too. He transferred from Baylor last summer in the aftermath of Patrick Dennehy's shooting death and the scandal that enveloped the school.\nNelson shot 6 for 18 and finished with 17 points, and Delonte West had 20 points.\n"I missed some layups I should have made," Nelson said.\nThe game was billed as a matchup of the Hawks' speed versus the Cowboys' strength, and that's how it went for a while. But in the end, it came down to what Allen said it would a day earlier -- "buckets" -- and Oklahoma State made the last one.\nLucas made only one of six shots before the break, and the Cowboys trailed 33-27.\n"I think he played at a faster clip in the second half," Martelli said. "I thought we could throw him out of synch. I thought the speed with which they attacked in the second half was the difference for him."\nThe CBS telecast opened with the Hawk and Cowboy mascots standing right behind the announcers. Asked about his previous comments on Saint Joseph's, Packer said, "This is an outstanding team, they really play well together."
Duke 66, Xavier 63\nATLANTA -- Too much history. Too much Duke.\nThe Blue Devils ended Xavier's remarkable run in the NCAA tournament and headed to their 14th Final Four, holding off the Musketeers 66-63 Sunday to win the Atlanta Regional.\nXavier had already chopped down the second- and third-seeded teams in the region but couldn't make it 1-2-3 against Duke. The Blue Devils will be the only No. 1 seed in San Antonio, advancing to meet Connecticut next Saturday in the national semifinals.\nThe seventh-seeded Musketeers had never been this far in the tourney, and it showed in the closing minutes against postseason-hardened Duke.\nWith the score tied at 56, Chris Duhon drove to the basket and missed, but Luol Deng grabbed the offensive rebound and passed out to J.J. Redick, who swished the 3-pointer that put the Blue Devils ahead for good with 2:55 remaining.\nXavier couldn't overcome the loss of Anthony Myles, its best inside player, who fouled out with 12 and-a-half minutes remaining after scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. His absence was especially telling at the end.\nAfter Redick's trey, 6-foot-1 Dedrick Finn drove the lane, only to have his shot swatted away by 6-foot-9 Shelden Williams. Duhon sped the other way and missed again, but Deng tapped in the rebound to give the Blue Devils a five-point lead with 1:55 to go.\nJustin Doellman finally scored for the Musketeers, their first basket in nearly 4 and-a-half minutes, but Duke closed it out at the free throw line. Redick hit a pair. So did Duhon, the only prominent holdover from Duke's last national championship team in 2001.\nThe Blue Devils (31-5) lost the last two years in the regional semifinals, but they didn't slip up this time.\nDeng had 19 points and was named the MVP of the regional. Williams also came up big, scoring 12 points to go along with 13 rebounds.\nLionel Chalmers led Xavier (26-11) with 17 points.\nXavier failed to become the first team since LSU in 1986 to reach the Final Four by knocking out the top three seeds in a region. Duke is a virtual lock when it gets to this point, improving to 10-1 in regional finals under coach Mike Krzyzewski.\nThe Blue Devils will be seeking their fourth national title at the Alamodome next weekend.\nXavier was only 10-9 at the end of January, in danger of missing the tournament, but turned things around after Chalmers went off on his teammates following a 21-point loss at George Washington.\nThe Musketeers won the Atlantic 10 tournament -- ending Saint Joseph's perfect season with a 20-point victory -- and kept things rolling in the NCAAs. They knocked off Louisville in the opening round, upset No. 2 seed Mississippi State 89-74 to reach the round of 16, then made it to a regional final for the first time with a 79-71 win over No. 3 seed Texas.\nThat's where the thrilling ride ended for the school that is mispronounced often -- it's "Zay-vee-er" -- and struggles for attention in its own city, competing with the Cincinnati Bearcats.\nXavier took a devastating blow when Myles picked up his fourth and fifth fouls just six seconds apart. He was first whistled during a scrum for position with Williams.\nCoach Thad Matta motioned for Brandon Cole to get in the game, but he didn't make it to the table in time. Redick got off a quick three-pointer, and Myles got nailed again while battling with Williams under the basket.\nMyles hopped away in disbelief, then retreated to the bench, covering his face with a towel while his teammates tried to get by without him.\nThey showed admirable grit, holding a 56-53 lead with less than six minutes to go. But Deng hit a three to tie it, and the Musketeeers finally wore down. They held Duke to 39 percent shooting, but were only 35 percent at their own end.\nBoth teams started slow, combining to miss the first 11 shots. Duhon finally broke the drought with nearly four minutes gone, driving to the basket and laying it in.\nThen, it was game on.\nThe lead went back and forth seven times in the first half alone -- the margin never getting higher than five points. The final change came right at the end of the half.\nAfter Redick missed underneath with about six seconds left, Myles rebounded and threw a quick outlet pass to Finn. The sophomore sprinted up court, pulling up just beyond the three-point line and swishing a shot as the horn sounded.\nFinn ran toward the locker room but stopped to pose for the Xavier section and get a hug from teammate Will Caudle. The Duke players trotted off the court with glum looks.\nBut they were celebrating at the end, cutting down the nets in the Georgia Dome.
Connecticut 87, Alabama 71\nPHOENIX -- The NCAA tournament is bringing out the best in Connecticut.\nAnd the Huskies at their best are breathtaking.\nBen Gordon scored 36 points -- one shy of his career high -- and Rashad Anderson added a career-best 28 -- in the Huskies' 87-71 romp over Alabama Saturday in the Phoenix Regional final.\nA flurry of blocked shots, a dazzling display of long shots, and the upstart Crimson Tide had no shot against an assemblage of UConn talent coming together when it matters most.\nAnderson made six of nine three-pointers and Gordon was 4 for 7. Gordon, the regional MVP, was also 10 for 11 at the foul line.\n"Both of us have never shot that well in any one game this year," Gordon said. "I think the man upstairs just gave us the talent to do that today."\nConnecticut, the preseason pick for No. 1, plays the winner of Sunday's Duke-Xavier game in the Final Four next Saturday in San Antonio.\n"It's going to take a great game to beat them," Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said. "They've just got so many weapons."\nSecond-seeded UConn (31-6) used a 17-4 outburst over the final five minutes of the first half to go up 53-29, and 'Bama never got closer than 14 after that.\nCoach Jim Calhoun called the first 20 minutes "probably as good a basketball as we could possibly play."\nConnecticut's All-America center Emeka Okafor played only 19 minutes and scored just two points but had nine rebounds and blocked five shots, all in the first half. A hard foul by Alabama's Jermareo Davidson gave Okafor an elbow stinger with 9:19 left in the first half.\nOkafor left briefly, returned to finish the half and started the second half. But he sat down for good with 16:32 to play and UConn leading 59-36.\n"Just a little tingle. Nothing too serious," Okafor said when asked how his arm was feeling after the game.\nUConn playmaker Taliek Brown scored just three points but had 10 assists.\n"We've had some times where the mantle of expectations weighed heavily upon us," Calhoun said. "As the season started to close down and we saw our window of opportunity become more limited, we kicked the window out and became a terrific, terrific basketball team."\nThe eighth-seeded Crimson Tide (20-13) stunned top-seeded Stanford and beat defending national champion Syracuse to reach a regional final for the first time. But UConn's combination of size, quickness and uncanny accuracy was too much, especially over that five-minute onslaught.\nChuck Davis scored a career-best 24 points for Alabama, and Kennedy Winston 21. But Earnest Shelton managed just 10 on 3 for 11 shooting, and floor leader Antoine Pettway was 0 for 2 with just one point.\nUConn's Josh Boone missed four consecutive free throws as Alabama cut the lead to 76-62 on Davis' two free throws with 4:39 to play. Gordon followed with a 10-footer, and Alabama never got closer than 14 again.\nThe Huskies advanced to the Final Four for the second time. The first run also went through Phoenix, where UConn won the West Regional en route to the 1999 national championship.\nAnderson sank two three-pointers and Gordon one in the late first-half run that put UConn in control for good.\n"I had a chance to sit around and watch them play all season, and I've never seen them shoot the ball like that and work the inside-outside like they were," Davis said of the Huskies. "I think they made their first seven threes. They came out ready to play."\nThe pair outscored the entire 'Bama team 40-29 in the first 20 minutes.\nUConn made 9 of 11 three-pointers in the first half, with Anderson going 6 for 6 for 22 points, four shy of his career best for an entire game.\n"I was really in a zone. I felt like both of us were," Anderson said. "Before I even came off the pick, I felt like the shot was in."\nGordon, meanwhile, took just eight shots, made five of them, was 3 for 4 on threes and had 18 first-half points.\nCalhoun took Anderson out after his three with 17 seconds to go punctuated the outburst, and the sharpshooter could only shake his head from side to side as if he couldn't quite believe what he'd done.\nOkafor swatted away shots inside early, with three blocks in about a 20-second span.\nThe junior sank a rebound bank shot with 9:19 to play to put UConn up 28-15 and was clobbered by Davidson.\nOkafor hurt his arm on the play, and his subsequent free throw didn't reach the rim. He came out of the game, stretched on the sidelines, flexing his hand, then returned 1:02 later.\nDavis' three-point play, on a foul by Okafor, and Winston's five-foot floater in traffic had cut the lead to 33-25 with 5:20 left in the half.\nBut Gordon rebounded his own shot for a score, then was fouled by Winston on a three-pointer. His three free throws made it 38-25 with 4:13 left before half and UConn's big run was on.\nThe Huskies have won their last 10 games with Anderson in the starting lineup. Calhoun made him a starter against St. John's Feb. 24.\nSince then, the only game Anderson didn't start, UConn lost at Syracuse in its regular-season finale.\nWhen it was over, there wasn't much celebration. The players climbed the ladder to take turns cutting down the net, but it was all done calmly as if a gigantic load had been lifted from them.\n"It would have been incredibly disappointing if we didn't get to a Final Four with this group," Calhoun said. "This is as good a group of kids as I've ever been around. They're incredibly talented. I don't know if it's the best team I've ever had, but I can tell you this much, they're incredible people to be around"
