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NCAA - East
March 22, 2003
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 in the first round of the East Region.
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.
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 turning over the ball with 1:33 left.
Timmy Bowers was short on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Butler won acclaim when it took Florida to overtime as a No.12 seed in 2000, and the Bulldogs gained a bona fide reputation when they upset Wake Forest in 2001. Now the Horizon League regular-season champions can add another entry to their history of upsets.
Miller had 14 points and Duane Lightfoot added 13 for Butler, which received an at-large berth for the first time since 1962.
Mississippi State lost in the first round for the first time since 1991, spanning three trips.
Mario Austin had 18 points and 10 rebounds for Mississippi State.
LOUISVILLE 86, AUSTIN PEAY 64: Rick Pitino returned to the tournament for the first time since 1997 and did it in style, this time guiding Louisville over flustered Austin Peay.
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 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 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: Carmelo Anthony found a clear path to the second round by driving to the basket instead of tossing up jumpers.
His aggressiveness in the second half rubbed off on his teammates as Syracuse advanced in Boston.
Anthony, considered by many the nation's best freshman, wanted to start the game by checking the accuracy of his jumper. After going 3-for-9 with seven points in the first 26 minutes, he changed his approach.
"I know now I have to start out the game from the inside," the 6-foot-8 Anthony said. "All day, everyone was telling me to take advantage of the height I had on them."
Asked why he didn't go inside earlier, Anthony didn't respond before coach Jim Boeheim broke in.
"Bad coaching," Boeheim said.
Anthony's last six shots came from 5 feet and closer -- and he made four. He also had both his blocked shots in the second, when his teammates followed his aggressive example. They scored 20 in the paint in the first and 28 in the second.
Another freshman, Billy Edelin, scored 15 for the Orangemen (25-5).
Manhattan trailed 35-31 at halftime after the Orangemen committed 12 turnovers. But they had just six after that and staved off several surges by the Jaspers (23-7).
OKLAHOMA ST. 77, PENN 63: Eddie Sutton turned himself into a "junkyard dog" to turn things around for the Cowboys.
Even grumpier than usual with Oklahoma State in a 4-8 slump, Sutton put his team through two-a-day practices while their classmates were on spring break. The message was clear: He did not want a third consecutive first-round loss.
Victor Williams scored a career-high 29 to lead the Cowboys.
"We had a meeting before we took the floor and all the seniors said, 'We can't leave this program without giving Coach Sutton a win,"' Williams said. "I could see it in everyone's eyes. Down the stretch, we just made everything happen."
Ugonna Onyekwe matched a career high with 30 points for Penn, which had won its past 15 games and went undefeated in the Ivy League. The Quakers (22-6) were within four with 2:58 left but gave up the last 10 points.
Oklahoma State (22-9) plays Sunday against Syracuse, and it's a good bet that today, Sutton will lead his players through one of the workouts that led Williams to start calling him "junkyard dog."
"I'm not nearly as hard or as tough as I used to be," Sutton said.
Ivan McFarlin had 13 points and 12 rebounds, Tony Allen scored eight consecutive points during a key second-half run and the Cowboys made just enough free throws to win. Although they missed four straight from the line in the second, they made the next five to pull away.