The Michigan Daily-Sports Monday- March 18,1991 - Page 5
ROAD
TO
INDIANAPOLIS
Eastern needs OT
to beat Penn State
Spartans charitable
from free throw line
Associated Press
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -
When it mattered most, Eastern
Michigan seized its opportunities
,unday and Penn State didn't.
And that's why the Hurons are
in the NCAA tournament's final 16
for the first time.
Lorenzo Neely scored five
points in overtime as the Hurons
beat Penn State 71-68 in the East
Regional. There were 20 lead
changes and eight ties and neither
team led by more than five points.
"They had some breaks but
they couldn't capitalize on them,"
said Neely, who finished with 18
points. "We made some decent
decisions when it counted. They
had opportunities but we did some-
thing with ours."
Penn State (21-11), which
hasn't advanced beyond the sec-
ond round since 1954, had several
opportunities, but James Brown
issed two free throws in the final
w63 seconds of regulation and Fred-
die Barnes missed a pair 3-pointers
in the final four seconds of over-
time.
"It's going to take a while to
get over this loss," Penn State
guard Monroe Brown said. "It's too
hard to talk about it now. Maybe,
over the summer."
Eastern Michigan's Marcus
Kennedy, who scored 21 points be-
fore fouling out in overtime, said
he was "sick to his stomach"
watching the final minutes from
the bench.
"I was surprised and happy that
my teammates came back and re-
sponded well," Kennedy said.
"They didn't get their heads
down."
Eastern Michigan (26-6) was a
9first-round loser in 1988 in its only
previous NCAA appearance. The
Hurons play top-seeded North Car-
olina in the regional semifinals at
East Rutherford, N.J. Michigan
State is following last year's sur-
prising performance by Ball State,
another 12th-seeded team from the
Mid-American Conference which
advanced to the final 16.
Penn State fell behind 62-58 in
overtime but scored the next five
Local fans
take wild
tourney
ride
Associated Press
When Eastern Michigan and
Michigan State went into overtime
Sunday, their fans went into emo-
tional overdrive.
But while the Eastern faithful
were savoring the Hurons' 71-68
win over Penn State in the NCAA
East Regional, Michigan State
fans were trying to come to terms
with the Spartans' 85-84 loss to
Utah in the West Regional.
Eastern Michigan campus po-
lice said things were quiet at the
Ypsilanti school. Laura Stewart, a
junior from Grand Rapids, agreed,
saying: "I haven't heard of any ri-
ots. Yet."
* For fans whose teams won and
lost, respectively, the games gen-
erated strikingly similar reactions.
"They almost gave me a heart
attack," said Bobby Murray, one
of about 10 Eastern Michigan stu-
dents who watched the Hurons on
TV in McKenny Union. "We made
plenty of noise for 100 people."
"A lot of hearts were beating
awful quick back here," said Eric
Rayner, a senior from Marshall
who is employed at Michigan
State's Kellogg Center. "We got to
the point where, after the first
overtime, we didn't know if we
wanted to win or lose. We couldn't
take any more."
Eastern Michigan's basketball
team won't be the only ones to
benefit from the Hurons' first-ever
A appearance in the NCAA tourna-
points as Kennedy and Kory Hallas
fouled out on back-to-back plays.
Eastern Michigan then rallied
with its big men on the bench.
Charles Thomas scored off a
blocked Penn State shot for a 64-
63 lead, and the Hurons held on as
Neely and Carl Thomas each sank
a pair of free throws.
Roger Lewis's layup with 29
seconds left gave Eastern a 70-66
lead, and Neely made a final free
throw with 10.4 seconds to go.
Freddie Barnes' two free throws
pulled Penn State within two
points and Neely's missed free
throw gave the Nittany Lions an-
other chance. But Barpes missed a
3-pointer from the top of the key
with 3.4 seconds remaining. After
Carl Thomas traveled with the re-
bound, Barnes missed a shot from
deep in the corner at the buzzer.
"I got fouled on the first one,"
Barnes said. "But both were shots
we wanted."
The game went into overtime
after Penn State's James Barnes,
an 81 percent free-throw shooter,
missed the second shot of a one-
and-one with 63 seconds left and
the score tied at 58. Penn State got
the ball back when Monroe Brown
tipped away a pass for Kennedy
and was fouled in the scramble.
Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. - Utah con-
tinues to prove the skeptics wrong.
Josh Grant scored a season-high
29 points and the Utes overcame
s frigid free-throw shooting to beat
Michigan State 85-84 in double
overtime Sunday at the West Re-
gional. The victory sends Utah to
the final 16 of the NCAA tourna-
ment for the first time since 1983.
Although the Utes are 30-3 and
ranked 10th in the nation, a lot of
people didn't think they would get
this far.
"We feel we've been under-
rated all year. This kind of vali-
dates the season," said Utah coach
Rick Majerus. "Thirty wins is a lot
of wins."
Utah won despite making only
28 of 46 free throws.
"We had a lot of adversity to-
day missing foul shots, but we just
played through it," Majerus said.
"That's what the NCAA tourna-
. ment is all about. We left it all on
the floor today. It's the best game
I've ever been involved with in my
life."
The fourth-seeded Utes will
AP Photo play the UNLV-Georgetown winner
Georgia Tech sophomore sensation Kenny Anderson scores over Ohio on Thursday in the regional semi-
State's Treg Lee (left) and Perry Carter in the Buckeyes' 65-61 victory, finals at Seattle.
Fifth-seeded Michigan State
(19-11) was led by Steve Smith's
28 points.
"I thought maybe we earned the
game as hard as we played, but
Utah probably feels the same
way," Spartans coach Jud Heath-
cote said. "It was a great basket-
ball game because there were so
many great plays."
Michigan State forced the first
overtime at 64-64 on Matt
Steigenga's driving layup and
Smith's two free throws with 24
seconds left. Smith was fouled
away from the ball while
Steigenga was shooting.
With Michigan State trailing
75-73 in the first overtime, the
Spartans' Mike Peplowski was
fouled underneath with 6.6 seconds
left. After missing his first free
throw, Peplowski intentionally
missed the second. Teammate Jon
Zulauf grabbed the rebound and
made a short jumper with four sec-
onds remaining to force the second
overtime.
Walter Watts, who scored 14
points, put Utah ahead to stay at
81-79 on a dunk with 1:34 left in
the second overtime. A free throw
by Watts with 10 seconds left gave
Utah an 85-81 lead, giving the
Utes enough cushion to withstand
Smith's 3-pointer with three sec-
onds remaining.
Michigan State beat Wiscon-
sin-Green Bay 60-58 in the first
round on Smith's 20-foot jumper at
the buzzer.
"We didn't want Smith to beat
us," Majerus said. "We talked
about it ad nauseam before the
game. We threw everything at him
and he still got his points."
Jimmy Soto scored 16 points for
Utah. Grant, whose previous high
was 25 on Dec. 15 against Pacific,
had 15 in the first half.
"The way things were going,
we thought there might be five or
six overtimes," Grant said. "But
we kept our poise and pulled out
the win."
Steigenga, who fouled out in
the second overtime, scored 17
points for the Spartans, who led
33-29 at halftime.
"We battled back twice from
four points down in regulation and
two points in the first overtime. I
thought maybe fate was with us,"
Heathcote said. "But I never:
thought we had it won or Utah had
it until it was over."
Boxncore
MICHIGAN STATE (84)
Steigenga 7-14 2-2 17, Stephens 2-
3 2-2 6, Peplowski 7-11 0-2 14,
Montgomery 4-9 0-0 9, Smith 10-21 5-
6 28, Hickman 1-3 0-0 2, Zulauf 1-4 0-
0 2, Penick 1-7 4-5 6, Weshins-key 0-0
0-0 0. Totals 33-72 13-17 84.
UTAH (85)
Grant 10-17 6-8 29, McGrath 1-1 1-
2 3, Watts 3-9 8-16 14, Tate 3-5 0-0 6,.
Wilson 3-7 1-2 8, Afeaki 1-4 3-4 5,
Soto 3-8 8-12 16, Dixon 0-4 0-0 0,
Rydalch 1-4 1-2 4, Howard 0-0 0-0 0.
Totals 25-59 28-46 85.
Halftime-Michigan St. 33, Utah
29. Regulation-64-64. First
overtime-75-75. 3-point goals-
Michigan St. 5-14 (Smith 3-8,
Steigenga 1-2, Montgomery 1-2,
Penick 0-2), Utah 7-21 (Grant 3-6,
Soto 2-4, Wilson 1-4, Rydalch 1-4,
Dixon 0-3). Fouled out- Steigenga,
Montgomery, Wilson. Rebounds-
Michigan St. 43 (Peplowski 11), Utah
36 (Grant, Watts 10). Assists-
Michigan St. 19 (Montgomery 7), Utah
15 (Tate 5). Total fouls-Michigan St.
28, Utah 20. Technicals-Michigan St.
coach Heathcote, Montgomery. A-
13,497.
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