Louisville storms back to edge Florida, advances to its ninth Final Four

CBSSports.com wire reports
March 24, 2012

PHOENIX -- Hated to do that to ya, kid.

Rick Pitino nearly came unhinged and his point guard watched the end of the game from the bench. When it was over, though, it was Pitino and Louisville making plans for the Final Four and his protege, Billy Donovan, and the Florida Gators wondering what the heck happened.

Chane Behanan made the go-ahead basket with 1:04 left Saturday and the fourth-seeded Cardinals finished the game on a 23-8 run for a 72-68 victory over Donovan's stunned Florida team in the West Regional final.

Russ Smith followed Behanan's bucket with a pair of free throws and then Florida freshman Bradley Beal and teammate Kenny Boynton each missed chances to tie.

Louisville made one more free throw to seal the game and reach its ninth Final Four, and second under Pitino, despite playing the final 3:58 without point guard Peyton Siva, who fouled out.

Florida (26-11) went out in the regional final for the second straight year, with Donovan falling to 0-7 lifetime against the man who coached him at Providence, hired him as an assistant at Kentucky and felt as proud as a papa when he watched Donovan win his two national titles in 2006 and 2007.

This was no heartwarmer, though.

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Beal, Prather lead Gators to 71-45 win over Cavs

By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer
13 hours, 0 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—With his 1.5-point scoring average, Casey Prather surely wasn’t a big part of Virginia’s scouting report on Florida.

You can bet any team that plays Florida the rest of the NCAA tournament will know who he is.

Prather scored a career-high 14 points on a rare day Florida’s 3-point shooters went cold, and the Gators had no trouble beating the Cavaliers 71-45 Friday in the NCAA West Regional.

“On a big stage like this, he was probably a very unlikely candidate to step up and do what he did for us tonight,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “I’m happy for him, because he’s a great kid.”

Prather made 6 of 7 shots in a season-high 22 minutes, using a cool spin move to get to the basket for a baseline layup in the middle of the second half. But his best shot came late when he dunked off Erving Walker’s alley-oop pass.

“I woke up trying to be focused on the game and what I could do to help the team,” the sophomore reserve said.

Prather had played more than 10 minutes in a game just twice since mid-December and hadn’t scored more than six points in any previous game this season. In his last 16 games he had scored a total of 15 points.

“He gave them a great lift,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “When you look at someone off the bench to give you a spark—I don’t want to say you weren’t counting on him—but that is a pleasant surprise, and he was that for them.”

Bradley Beal also had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Patric Young had 13 points on 6-for-6 shooting with three dunks.

Those efforts were enough to offset the Gators’ 4-for-23 shooting on 3-pointers. They entered the game averaging a nation-leading 9.9 a game but missed their first 13 attempts.

No. 7 seed Florida (24-10) pierced Virginia’s vaunted defense—the Cavaliers were giving up just 53.7 points a game—to get to the boards for second-chance baskets. The press also generated some easy buckets for the Gators, helping them go 24 of 30 from inside the arc.

“We were struggling to score in the beginning,” Walker said. “The press had a huge effect on the game. It got us in our offensive rhythm.”

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Indiana impressive in 79-66 win over NM State

By TIM BOOTH, AP Sports Writer
Mar 16, 1:31 am EDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)—After a four-year absence, Indiana is making its NCAA tournament return last longer than just one brief appearance.

And even though it’s one victory, it’s still a moment worthy of reflection for Indiana coach Tom Crean after rebuilding a gutted program and leading the Hoosiers to a 79-66 win over New Mexico State—their first in the NCAA tournament in five years.

“I think when I look up at the crowd and catch a glimpse of my family … it hits you for a brief moment that this is really, really special,” Crean said. “We’ve been through so much to get to this point. We’ve all learned a great deal. Everybody is better. It didn’t seem like it at the time, but everybody is better for what we had to endure.”

Now if the Hoosiers want to keep this tournament return going for another week, they’ll just need to take out Shaka Smart and those bracket-busting upstarts from VCU.

Jordan Hulls went on a second-half shooting spree and finished with 22 points, and the fourth-seeded Hoosiers rolled Thursday night in the second round of the South Regional.

Indiana picked up its first tournament win since beating Gonzaga in 2007 on a night its main stars—Cody Zeller and Christian Watford—did the heavy lifting in the opening minutes then watched Hulls and others take over.

Hulls shot 8 of 12, and 7 of 8 in the second half including his own personal 11-point run as the Hoosiers (26-8) blew the game open. Zeller, Watford and Will Sheehey all finished with 14 points for Indiana as part of a 59 percent shooting display that propelled the Hoosiers to the weekend.

Next up for the Hoosiers are the 12th-seeded Rams in the third-round Saturday afternoon and the chance for Indiana to find its way back to the regional semifinals for the first time since going to the Final Four in 2002.

“In a situation like this, there’s some physical to it, but it’s much more mental and retention, and seeing how it applies to you,” Crean said. “I’m looking forward to being up late.”

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BYU's record comeback beats Iona, 78-72

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron saw a huge comeback.

Had they stuck around a little longer, they could have watched the biggest one in NCAA tournament history.

Noah Hartsock scored 16 of his 23 points in the second half and the Cougars came back from 25 points down to beat Iona 78-72 in the first round Tuesday night.

It marked the biggest comeback in an NCAA tournament game, the NCAA said. Previously, the largest deficit overcome was 22 points when Duke fought back to beat Maryland 95-84 in the 2001 national semifinals.

Hartsock was a little hurt that the president wasn't around to see the fireworks in the nightcap.

``I started looking around and didn't see him,'' Hartsock said with a grin. ``But I'm sure he had some important things to take care of.''

It was the second incredible turnaround of the night in Dayton. With the two heads of state watching from front-row seats on the baseline, Western Kentucky came back from a 16-point deficit in the final 5 minutes to beat Mississippi Valley State 59-58 in the first game.

That was the biggest margin overcome by a team in the final 5 minutes to win an NCAA tournament game, the NCAA said.

No matter how far they fell behind, BYU and coach Dave Rose had faith that the Cougars could somehow come back.

``Coming back from 25 points down is really satisfying now that we've won. At the time it wasn't that satisfying being down 25,'' he joked. ``But I don't think that any of us, especially the coaching staff or our players, doubted the fact that we could chip into that lead.''

Brandon Davies added 18 points and Damarcus Harrison 12 for the 14th-seeded Cougars (26-8), who advanced to play third-seeded Marquette on Thursday in Louisville, Ky.

There was no consolation for Iona.

``It's going to be one that we have to live with the rest of our lives,'' Gaels coach Tim Cluess said. ``It's a tough one we let get away. No excuses.''

Iona (25-8) seemed assured of its first official NCAA tournament victory after dominating the first half. But despite 15 points and 10 assists by Scott Machado, the Gaels dropped to 0-8 in NCAA play. Their lone win in 1980 was vacated due to NCAA violations.

Iona came in as the nation's top-scoring team at 83.2 points per game and didn't disappoint - at least in the opening 16 minutes. The Gaels scored 55 points in an eye-popping display of passing wizardry and outside shooting. Then they didn't score over the final 4:30 of the first half.

BYU then took control, slowly but surely. The Cougars held the Gaels without a point for 9:20 in a 17-0 run to narrow the deficit to 62-61 midway through the second half. BYU made up ground with a trapping half-court defense that forced the Gaels out of their hurry-up-and-shoot-3s attack. At the other end, the Cougars were getting buckets from Hartsock on fallaway jumpers.

``We just were more aggressive,'' Cougars guard Brock Zylstra said. ``We were doing to them what they were doing to us in the first half.''

Iona scored 55 points in the first 16 minutes, then managed just three field goals and seven points over the next 16 1/2 minutes.

Jermel Jenkins ended the lengthy drought with a 3 from the left corner with 8 minutes left.

From there on, the teams traded baskets as the pace slowed. Machado's three-point play pushed the lead to 70-64 with 5 minutes remaining before Hartsock hit an outside shot. After two missed foul shots by the Gaels, he hit another short turnaround jumper to cut the lead to two.

With 2:26 left, Hartsock popped out on the right wing to hit a go-ahead 3. It was the Cougars' first lead of the game.

``This is a team that's worked hard all year, that's never given up,'' Hartsock said.

Davies added two free throws in the final minute before Zylstra scored in transition and turned it into a three-point play, and the comeback was complete.

It was a shocking turn of events because of how well the Gaels - who also got 13 points from Jenkins, 12 from Mike Glover and 10 by Sean Armand - started out.

``You're looking for answers out there, looking for guys to make a play,'' Cluess said. ``Their good player is drilling it with guys in his face and guys draped all over him. Big-time players have to make big-time plays.''

Rose, a co-captain for the old Phi Slamma Jamma teams at Houston, has tasted disappointment before. But not this night.

During a timeout in the middle of the comeback, he saw something he'll never forget.

``The look in our players' eyes at that time was, `Game on. We've got a chance here,''' Rose said. ``And we were able to finish it off.''

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