BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Rick Pitino had everything in place, as always – his neat, dark suit, his perfectly styled hair and his patented full-court press.
Pitino returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1997 and did it in style, this time guiding Louisville over flustered Austin Peay 86-64 Friday night in the first round of the East Regional.
While Luke Whitehead had 20 points and 11 rebounds and star Reece Gaines scored 18, Pitino clearly was the biggest attraction for the fourth-seeded Cardinals (25-6). The Louisville coach stomped his foot, clapped his hands, called out picks and shouted at the officials the entire game.
Pitino also slapped on all-court pressure, as planned, and that was the difference. He knew 13th-seeded Austin Peay could be sloppy handling the ball, but waited until midway through the first half to start trapping.
Ahead 20-19, the Cardinals put on the press and the result was immediate – they stole the ball three straight times and turned each one into a basket during a 10-0 run.
While Cardinals defenders wildly waved their arms and scrambled to double-team, the Governors (23-8) lost their composure. After Gaines fed Alhaji Mohammed for a dunk, Austin Peay was forced to call a timeout when it couldn’t inbound, prompting Anthony Davis to yell at his teammates and slam down the ball in frustration.
Syracuse 76, Manhattan 65
BOSTON – Carmelo Anthony waited until the second half to show why he’s one of the nation’s top players.
Anthony scored 10 of his 17 points after the break and became much more aggressive slashing to the basket, leading Syracuse to a 76-65 victory against tenacious Manhattan.
The third-seeded Orangemen struggled early, taking a 35-31 lead at halftime after committing 12 turnovers. Then Anthony, just 3-for-8 in the first half on mostly long-range shooting, started cutting to the rim.
He scored all four of his field goals close to the basket in the second half and picked up his only two blocks of the game. His teammates, who committed 12 turnovers in the first half, had just six the rest of the way.
Starting forward Hakim Warrick also improved, scoring all 10 of his points in the second half after being benched following the first three minutes of the game when he played poor defense.
Oklahoma State 77, Penn 63
BOSTON – Oklahoma State pulled out of its slump at just the right time.
Victor Williams scored a career-high 29 points and the Cowboys made enough free throws down the stretch Friday to win for only the second time in six games, beating Penn 77-63.
Ugonna Onyekwe matched a career high with 30 points for Penn, which won its previous 15 games and went undefeated in the Ivy League. The Quakers (22-6) were within four with 2:58 left, but they gave up the last 10 points of the game.
Ivan McFarlin had 13 points and 12 rebounds for Oklahoma State (22-9), which lost eight of its previous 12 games as it stumbled to the finish of the Big 12 season. But once it got out of the conference – home to six tournament teams and two No. 1 seeds – it found things more to its liking.
The Cowboys missed four straight free throws late in the second half before making five in a row to pull away from the Quakers. Oklahoma State was 16-of-28 from the line overall.
The Ivy League has won just three games in the NCAA tournament since 1984, but that doesn’t mean its teams have gone away quietly.
Wake Forest 76, ETSU 73
TAMPA, Fla. – Tiny Tim Smith and East Tennessee State nearly won one for the little guys. Josh Howard and his athletic Wake Forest teammates made sure bigger was barely better.
Howard, the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year, made two key free throws and finished with 12 points Friday to help the second-seeded Demon Deacons survive a major scare from No. 15 ETSU in a 76-73 victory.
Wake Forest (25-5) will play Auburn, a 65-63 overtime winner over Saint Joseph’s, in the second round of the East Regional on Sunday.
The Buccaneers (20-11) – only the second-best Bucs here in Tampa – will go home with a loss in their first tournament appearance in 11 years, but the consolation that they, not Wake Forest, were the real show.
With his 22-point performance and frenetic floor game, Smith got most of the credit for ETSU’s scintillating effort. During an unbelievable 65-second stretch late in the game, he almost took the Bucs to the second round on his own.
Butler 47, Mississippi St. 46
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – This time, Butler did more than just take a Southeastern Conference team down to the wire.
Brandon Miller hit a runner with 6.2 seconds left to lift the 12th-seeded Bulldogs to a 47-46 upset of No. 5 Mississippi State on Friday night.
Miller raced around the court pumping his fist while teammate Michael Monserez stood on the press row table, once again celebrating Butler (26-5) as an NCAA tournament darling.
Butler’s players came back on the court and gathered in front of their bench a few minutes later.
Michael Ignerski missed a fadeaway jumper with 25 seconds left for Mississippi State (21-10). Miller then brought the ball up the court and hit the runner in traffic after throwing the ball away for a costly turnover with 1:33 left.
Timmy Bowers was short on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
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AP-ES-03-22-03 0010EST
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