Oregon can’t hold lead vs. Mississippi St.
Published 11:46 pm Friday, March 21, 2008
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Barry Stewart was wide open in front of the Mississippi State bench, so coach Rick Stansbury discretely pointed to him.
Jamont Gordon made the pass, Stewart made the shot and finally the Bulldogs were in control.
And, someone besides Charles Rhodes was contributing to the offense.
Rhodes scored a career-high 34 points and the eighth-seeded Bulldogs overcame a 13-point, second-half deficit for a 76-69 South Regional victory over ninth-seeded Oregon on Friday night. Stewart added 16 points, all in the second half.
“If you’re a shooter, you keep shooting. You don’t lose confidence in your shot,” Stewart said. “You’ve just got to keep shooting and they fell tonight.”
Rhodes kept Mississippi State from being blown out. So did Oregon’s shooting. The Ducks went 9-of-38 from 3-point range, including 2-of-21 in the second half.
The Bulldogs trailed 41-28 after Malik Hairston’s 3-pointer at the start of the second half, but Oregon (18-14) didn’t make another 3 until the final seconds.
“We had a lot of open shots,” Oregon’s Maarty Leunen said. “We just weren’t able to make it, that’s all.”
The Ducks missed short and they missed off to the side. They even had one rattle in and out. Once they lost their shooting touch, their offense went into disarray.
Rhodes scored six straight points to start the Bulldogs’ rally — part of an 8-0 run that cut the lead to five. Mississippi State then fell behind by nine before Stewart made a 3-pointer with 13:21 remaining — the Bulldogs’ first of the game after 12 straight misses.
Until that shot, only four players had scored for Mississippi State.
“I thought I was going to have to go out there and shoot some treys,” the 6-foot-8 Rhodes said. “But my percentage isn’t good so I wasn’t going to do that to the team.”
Mississippi State faces top-seeded Memphis in the second round of the South Regional on Sunday. The matchup will be the Bulldogs’ first against their regional rival since 1984.
South Regional games
Memphis 87, Texas-Arlington 63: At North Little Rock, Ark., Chris Douglas-Roberts led five Tigers in double figures with 23 points, and he also had seven rebounds and four assists. Derrick Rose and Antonio Anderson added 17 points each, and Robert Dozier had 12 for Memphis, which improved to 34-1 with its eighth straight victory. Next up is eighth-seeded Mississippi State (23-10). Anthony Vereen led the Mavericks (21-12) with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting. Jermaine Griffin had 11 points and eight rebounds, and Rog’er Guignard added 10. The Tigers shot almost 52 percent from the floor, had seven steals and outrebounded the smaller Texas-Arlington 39-29. UTA had 14 turnovers and Memphis converted those miscues into 13 points.
Texas 74, Austin Peay 54: At North Little Rock, Ark., A.J. Abrams scored 26 points, and along with Connor Atchley and Dexter Pittman nearly outscored Austin Peay on their own in a first-round victory. Abrams was 6-of-10 from 3-point range, Atchley added 12 points and Pittman had 11. At 29-6, Texas is now one victory away from matching the school record for wins. The 2005-06 squad, which lost to LSU in the regional finals of the tournament, finished 30-7. Ernest Fields led the Governors (24-10) with 14 points. Todd Babington added 11. The victory sets up a second-round game Sunday with former Longhorns assistant Frank Haith, now the coach at Miami.
Miami 78, Saint Mary’s 64: At North Little Rock, Ark., Jack McClinton scored a career-high 38 points — 32 during a brilliant second half — to send seventh-seeded Miami past the Saints. The Hurricanes (23-10) trailed 32-27 at intermission, but went on a 25-5 run shortly afterward. McClinton scored 10 straight points early in that stretch. Later, after the Gaels (25-7) pulled within eight, McClinton calmly sank an open 3 from the left corner. Patty Mills, the Gaels’ freshman point guard and one of four players on the roster from Australia, scored 24 points. Saint Mary’s has won only one NCAA tournament game, in 1959. Miami, which was predicted to be the Atlantic Coast Conference’s worst team this season, has won eight of its last 11, part of a remarkable turnaround after a 12-20 record a season ago.
