NCAA Tournament wrap-up

UCLA holds off Texas A&M in a second-round thriller

ANAHEIM, Calif.—Those UCLA Bruins keep finding more drama and ways to win in the closing seconds.

Darren Collison scored the go-ahead basket on a one-handed layin with 9? seconds remaining, Josh Shipp blocked Donald Sloan’s final drive and the West Region’s No. 1 seed held on for a 53-49 victory over Texas A&M in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday night.

The Bruins (33-3) won their 12th in a row and will face Western Kentucky or San Diego next week in Phoenix.

Urged on by 17,600 pro-UCLA fans that made it seem like a home game, the Bruins rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half.

Kevin Love had 19 points and 11 rebounds — his 21st double-double — and UCLA overcame the combined 3-of-14 shooting of Shipp and Russell Westbrook. Love also blocked eight shots.

Lopez’s late bucket leads Stanford to OT win

ANAHEIM, Calif.—Stanford coach Trent Johnson missed an amazing ending.

In an emotional response to Johnson’s first-half ejection, the Cardinal rallied for an 82-81 overtime victory over Marquette in the NCAA’s South Regional on Saturday, advancing to the round of 16 for the first time since 2001.

Brook Lopez made a baseline leaner with 1.3 seconds left to win it for the third-seeded Cardinal (28-7). Lopez, one of Stanford’s twin 7-footers, finished with 30 points, one shy of a career high. The bucket came on Mitch Johnson’s career-high 16th assist.

Trent Johnson, the Pac-10 Coach of the Year, was ejected with 3:36 remaining in the first half for walking on the court to argue a foul call.

His ejection seemed to fire up the Cardinal, who trailed 36-30 at halftime.

Washington State blows out Notre Dame

DENVER—Derrick Low scored 18 points and Kyle Weaver added 15, and the Cougars won a clash of styles by shutting down Luke Harangody and the high-flying Fighting Irish.

Washington State held the Big East’s Player of the Year to 10 points, half his average, and limited the Irish (25-8) to half their scoring average, too. Harangody did have 22 rebounds.

Washington State advanced to play the winner of Sunday’s Arkansas-North Carolina game.

Robbie Cowgill added 12 points for the fourth-seeded Cougars (26-8), who won a second game in the tournament for the first time since 1941, when they lost to Wisconsin in the national championship game.

West Virginia’s defense, rebounding overwhelm Duke

WASHINGTON—Back at his alma mater, back in the NCAAs, Bob Huggins looked and sounded just like the Bob Huggins everyone remembers.

He yelled. He groused. He drew an early technical foul. And he willed his No. 7-seeded West Virginia past second-seeded Duke.

Playing tough man-to-man defense, grabbing what seemed like every loose ball, West Virginia used Joe Alexander’s 22 points and 11 rebounds and all sorts of contributions from unlikely sources for a 73-67 victory over Duke on Saturday, getting to the NCAA tournament’s round of 16 in Huggins’ first season.

Kansas finishes off Blowout City

OMAHA, Neb.—Good luck stopping Kansas.

The top-seeded Jayhawks can beat you on the inside with Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jackson. They can flip the ball to NBA-caliber Brandon Rush on the wing. They can kick it out to Mario Chalmers, or send Russell Robinson darting through the lane.

“We have the talent to be as good a team as we’ve had,” coach Bill Self said, “or better.”

Capping off two days of blowouts in Omaha, Kansas pulled away from UNLV in the second half and romped to a 75-56 victory Saturday at the NCAA’s Midwest Regional, another emphatic team effort by a deep, talented group out to win the proud program’s first national title in 20 years.

Neitzel, Lucas take over in MSU win

DENVER—All this talk about brawn and brute force gets old. Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas let everyone know these Michigan State guys can dribble and shoot it, too.

The Spartans guards went on a late ballhandling and scoring spree to help Michigan State pull away from Pittsburgh for a 65-54 victory Saturday night in the South Regional.

Lucas and Neitzel combined for 21 of the final 25 points for the fifth-seeded Spartans to help them win a battle of the bullies — a rough-and-tumble game between two Rust Belt teams who brought their show to the Rocky Mountains.

Wisconsin clamps down on Beasley, beats K-State

OMAHA, Neb.—Even after Wisconsin advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament on Saturday, Michael Beasley still was the hot topic of conversation.

That was OK with the Badgers, who made Beasley all but disappear in the second half of their 72-55 victory over Kansas State.

“I like playing under the radar,” said Trevon Hughes, who matched his career high with 25 points. “We know what we’ve got in the locker room. It put a chip on our shoulder and made us go out and play even harder.”

The third-seeded Badgers (31-4) quietly won the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships, then methodically beat Cal State Fullerton in the first round of the Midwest Regional.

Xavier takes down Purdue 85-75

WASHINGTON—C.J. Anderson and Drew Lavender each scored 18 points and Josh Duncan had 16, and Xavier was surprisingly efficient on offense.

The Musketeers (29-6) shot 54 percent in breaking the school record for wins, going 26-for-33 at the free throw line and 27-for-50 from the floor against a team that led the Big Ten in field-goal percentage defense. Their 85 points were the most allowed by Purdue this season.

Keaton Grant scored 19 for the Boilermakers (25-9), who have won 10 straight first-round games but have exited without another win in half those tournaments.

Lavender, a 5-foot-7 guard, had nine assists and provided Xavier with a pivotal basket after the Musketeers frittered away an almost insurmountable lead in this defensive struggle.

© 2008 The Associated Press