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College basketball: March Madness 2005
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Wolfpack storms back on Charlotte
Associated Press
Published March 19, 2005
WORCESTER, Mass. - Julius Hodge stormed into the locker room, slapped his teammates on the back and shouted in jubilation. He would play another day.
Hodge had 19 points, nine assists and seven rebounds Friday and keyed a late 16-4 surge to lead North Carolina State to a 75-63 comeback victory over Charlotte in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
It was a far cry from a year ago, when Hodge fouled out of a second-round loss to Vanderbilt and left the court in tears, the lowest moment of his stellar career.
Now, the Wolfpack plays Sunday against Connecticut in the Syracuse Region.
"Last year's in the past. I just told the guys that, "This is it, we have to step it up,' " said Hodge, who upped his career points total to 2,009. "We know we have to play through deficits."
The 10th-seeded Wolfpack faced a big one early against the 49ers, falling behind by 14 less than five minutes into the game.
Hot-shooting Brendan Plavich sank four straight 3s in the first nine minutes. Eddie Basden added a 3, and his basket with 11:29 left put the 49ers on top 23-9.
"We got into a hole and I told the guys, "If we lose, we're going home tonight, and we're not going to do that, not in Julius' last game,' " said Ilian Evtimov, who finished with 12 points.
Charlotte held a 36-29 halftime lead and stayed ahead before Hodge began to assert himself.
Less than three minutes after his 2,000th career point, Hodge converted a three-point play to pull the Wolfpack within 49-45 with 14:21 left. He then beat Basden, the two-time Conference USA defensive player of the year, along the baseline with 10:32 left. After Plavich threw up an airball, Cameron Bennerman hit a pullup jumper to give the Wolfpack its first lead since Hodge scored the first basket of the game.
UCONN 77, UCF 71: Joyless. Complacent. Okay at best.
And that was from the winners.
The defending champion Huskies withstood a furious charge, getting 22 points from Charlie Villanueva to win keep their hopes of a repeat alive.
The Golden Knights cut a 19-point lead to four thanks to Gary Johnson's career-high 29 points, including seven 3-pointers. But Connecticut held on for its 13th consecutive first-round victory.
"Some of them have been awful. Some of them have been great. This one was okay at best," coach Jim Calhoun said. "We played some brilliant basketball, took our foot off the pedal and couldn't find it again. ... From that point on, we didn't play with the kind of enthusiasm this event deserves.
"But we'll be one of the 32, and that's the whole idea."
MICH. ST. 89, ODU 81: Larry Izzo leaned back in his chair, his arms spread, his lips pursed. The usually volatile Spartans coach didn't like what he was seeing.
Fifth-seeded Michigan State couldn't pull away until the final minutes, when Shannon Brown made a spinning layin to start a three-point play as the Spartans avoided a second straight first-round exit and gave Izzo his 20th NCAA Tournament win.
Brown scored 13 and Alan Anderson 15 to lead five Spartans in double figures. Michigan State shot 57 percent (29-for-51) from the floor despite making 3 of 14 3-pointers.
Alex Loughton had 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists for the Monarchs after playing much of the second half in the foul trouble.
[Last modified March 19, 2005, 01:02:12]
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