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Tampa upsets Adelphi

By TOM KOLBE

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2001

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- After the University of Tampa men's basketball team advanced to its first Elite Eight, the Spartans faced their toughest obstacle -- No. 1 Adelphi, the lone unbeaten of 992 NCAA teams.

Tampa's 82-68 victory Wednesday advances the Spartans to the NCAA Division II Final Four to play Kentucky Wesleyan, which defeated Southwest State 85-66 Wednesday. The 25-6 Spartans play the 29-3 Panthers, the Division II national champions two years ago, at 9 tonight.

Tampa was led by South Region MVP Elijah Piazza, who scored a team-high 19 points and had seven rebounds. "It was a great victory for us," Piazza said. "We felt we could compete with this team, and I wanted to come off the bench and give the team some quality play. This is a tremendous building block, and this team has certainly came a long way."

A Bakersfield-area newspaper had made Tampa an 18-point underdog.

"Our guys really played well," said Richard Schmidt, in his 18th year as Tampa's coach. "We accomplished what we talked about after evaluating Adelphi, and I am extremely proud of the way these kids reacted to being such a heavy underdog.

"We felt we could come in and cause a lot of trouble for Adelphi because we have very good perimeter defenders and they rely a lot on outside shooting and perimeter play. Our kids feel like they can play with just about anybody."

Sylvere Bryan added 12 points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Spartans. Gecarri Freeman had 10 points for Tampa, which trailed once, 2-0.

"I thought we played real hard, and not having experienced a loss all year, experiencing one at this time is a hard thing to take," Adelphi coach Jim Ferry said.

"But had we had seven or eight losses on the year, I would still feel the same way I do right now. I still think we have a great team; we just didn't play great tonight."

Adelphi, of Garden City on Long Island, finished 31-1.

Tampa's inside game was dominating as the Spartans outscored Adelphi 38-24 in the paint. Tampa led 35-27 at halftime and made it 45-32 with 13:12 remaining. The Spartans led by at least seven in the second half as Bryan hit two field goals and Leonard Kelly came off the bench to hit a three-pointer and field goal.

"This is a tremendous victory," Bryan said. "Everyone on the team wanted this victory, and we made it a goal to do whatever it took to win today."

Adelphi's Ryan McCormack, the Division II player of the year, scored a game-high 22 points and had six assists.

"We came out flat and never really got it going," McCormack said. "We felt the rims were a little tight, and we had trouble shooting. Tampa just totally outplayed us today.

"I'm pretty much at a loss for words."

LIVE BROADCAST: Tonight's live play-by-play can be followed on the Internet at www.golivesports.com.

- Information from Times wires was used in this report.

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