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Three
upsets and four that were close By JIM
O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer
Central Michigan, Arizona State and Tulsa provided the
first-round upsets Thursday.
Holy Cross, Utah State, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Colorado
State all came oh-so-close to knocking off a favorite in the NCAA
tournament.
By the looks of many of the first-round games, other players
and coaches better brace themselves for thrillers of their own.
The West Regional had two of the double-digit seed wins as
No. 11 Central Michigan beat No. 6 Creighton 79-73 and No. 10 Arizona State
defeated No. 7 Memphis 84-71.
Tulsa pulled off the biggest upset, according to the
seedings, as the Golden Hurricane, No. 13 in the Midwest, beat No. 4 Dayton
84-71.
Holy Cross was the most expected of the near-upsets as the
14th-seeded Crusaders lost 72-68 to third-seeded Marquette in the Midwest
Regional. Two years ago, Holy Cross put a scare into No. 2-seeded Kentucky
and did the same to top-seeded Kansas in 2002.
Kansas was a No. 2 again this season and this time Utah
State provided the scare before losing 64-61. The 15th-seeded Aggies had two
chances to tie the game in the final 10 seconds.
Notre Dame had an even closer finish as the fifth-seeded
Fighting Irish beat No. 12 Wisconsin-Milwaukee 70-69, with the Panthers
missing a layup with 3 seconds to go.
Duke beat Colorado State 67-57, but the Blue Devils were up
just two points with 1:25 to play.
The 2003 tournament had as many close calls in the first few
games as in all of last season's opening round.
The first five games this year were all decided by five
points or fewer, matching the number from last season's 32 first-round
games, and the total later went to eight. In 2001, there were 12 first-round
games decided by five points or fewer.
On Thursday, the other close games were: Missouri 72,
Southern Illinois 71; Gonzaga 74, Cincinnati 69; California 76, North
Carolina State 74 in overtime; Illinois 65, Western Kentucky 60; and
Connecticut 58, BYU 53.
Two of the games that weren't close featured No. 1 seeds:
Arizona beat Vermont 80-51 and Oklahoma downed South Carolina State 71-54.
Also, Stanford beat San Diego 77-69 and Wisconsin downed Weber State 81-74.
When the Connecticut-BYU game ended, the big sigh everyone
heard came from the tournament selection committee, which had mistakenly
placed BYU in a bracket that had a Sunday regional final.
The Mormon-owned school cannot play on Sunday, so the NCAA
agreed to move the Cougars to a different region if they advanced past the
second round.
In Salt Lake City, Central Michigan (25-6) won an NCAA
tournament game for the first time since 1975, despite having a 26-point
lead dwindle to two late in the game. The Chippewas, who took advantage of
25 percent shooting and 13 turnovers by Creighton in the first half to build
the big lead, became the fourth Mid-American Conference team in the last
five years to win a first-round game.
``I could never imagine being in this stadium, beating a
good team like Creighton,'' said Mike Manciel, who led Central Michigan with
29 points. ``We continue to believe in one another. It's still not over.''
In Oklahoma City, Arizona State (20-11) rode Pac-10 freshman
of the year Ike Diogu, who was 9-for-11 from the field, had 22 points and
prevailed in the second half of the big matchup inside with Memphis' Chris
Massie. The Sun Devils' win made the Pac-10 4-0 Thursday.
``I'm disappointed, but I'll be honest with you, they played
well,'' Memphis coach John Calipari said. ``When they shoot 70 percent in
the second half, it's going to be a hard game to win.''
In Spokane, Wash., Jason Parker scored 24 points on 10-of-13
shooting, Dante Swanson was 8-of-15 for 24 points and Kevin Johnson added 16
points on a 7-of-10 effort for Tulsa.
Holy Cross, the champion of the Patriot League, was right
there until the final minutes against its last three NCAA opponents.
``Our problem is we can't get over that first-game hump,''
Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard said after another fine defensive performance
kept his team in the game. ``I thought we could be a dangerous team after
the first round.''
Once again, no one will ever know.
Holy Cross, which last won an NCAA tournament game in 1953,
has become this generation's giant-scarers, another Princeton — surprising
opponents who were looking further down the bracket.
The Crusaders (26-5) managed to stay close to the Golden
Eagles despite missing 10 free throws. They did it with team defense that
held Conference USA player of the year Dwyane Wade to 15 points, all in the
second half, and second-leading scorer Robert Jackson to four.
But Holy Cross couldn't stop everyone, and 6-foot-1 guard
Travis Diener had a career-high 29 points.
``I got a few looks and I took them,'' said Diener, who was
6-for-7 from 3-point range. ``It's not like I was looking to take bad shots.
They just came.''
Marquette (24-5) won a first-round game for the first time
since 1996.
Jim O'Connell has covered college basketball for The
Associated Press since 1987. He was presented the Curt Gowdy Media Award by
the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002..
Copyright 2003
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:46:51 AM
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