The Daily Tar HeelMonday, March 27, 198911 Sports . . - 198 9 NCAA Men's BasketbaE Gharaipioeslhiip iiiiiuuu. uiuuiunuiu.uroouu..iiuiiiiuyiikmiiimuliilgiuiiiiiimiuy M.nui in m imiiiiiiiiiiiuriiiiinn in iiiiiiu mum i mnuii.i n n ill 1. Arizona Arizona 94-60 .1 6 Robert Morris .'8 St. Marys Clemson 83-70 '''Clemson 5 Memphis St. DePaul 66-63 12 DePaul 4UNLV UNLV 68-56 13 Idaho j 6 Oregon State Evansville 94-90 ttl Evansville 3 SetonHall Seton Hall 60-51 14 S.W.Missouri St. 7UTEP UTEP 85-74 10LSU 2 Indiana Indiana 99-85 15 George Mason 1 Georgetown G'town 50-49 16 Princeton 8 Vanderbilt N.D. 81-65 9 Notre Dame 5 N.C. Stat? N.C. State 81-66 12 South Carolina . 4 Iowa Iowa 87-73 ' 13 Rutgers 6 Kansas State Minnesota 86-75 11 Minnesota '3 Stanford Siena 80-78 14 Siena 7 West Virginia W. Virginia 84-68 10 Tennessee 2 Duke Duke 90-69 15 S. Carolina St. Laetfaeir, From'Associated Press reports EAST RUTHERFORD. N.J. Christian Laettner, not Alonzo Mourning, won the battle of fresh map centers and Duke, not George townYwon the trip to the Final Four. Laettner hit nine of I0 shots and 1 " A ' a - O I I I scorea points aunuay wrine Mourning, Georgetown's third-team All-American, managed just 1 1 points and spent crunch time on the bench as Duke moved to its third Final Four in four years with an 85- 77 victory in the East Regional final. Laettner also outrebounded Mourn ing 9-5 to give the Blue Devils a 41- 35 edge. "Tne most important thing for me was that he blocked my shot early and' I got the ball back and put it in," Laettner said. "Alonzo is a very good player," said Laettner, whose previous career high was 20 points. "I thought about my game, not Georgetown s. I just wanted to do what 1 did all year kry to get the ball inside.' "I was a big reason why we were behind in the final minutes," Mourn ing said. I was a big reason we lost." "Alonzo appeared to be winded and 1 had to give him breathers," jeorgetown coach John I hompson aid. "We needed a smaller, more obile lineup." The Mourning-less lineup reduced k 14-point deficit to two before Duke teadied itself in the last minutes. "We made some mistakes to let hem back in it, but Georgetown orced those mistakes," Duke coach Mike. Krzyzewski said. "Then we made our free throws at the end. Lvhich hasn't been a strength of ours. "When you play Georgetown, Ivou re noi gening not aogs ana lamburgers. You're getting the best." Phil Henderson scored a career iigh',23 points and Danny Ferry, Loted the regional s outstanding player, added 21 for Duke. Charles Jmith led Georgetown with 21, 16 in he. second half, and Mark Tillmon idded 16. "We beat a great team," said Ferry, Ivho.is making his third trip to the inal Four. "It was a big challenge Arizona 94-68 UNLV 68-67 UNLV 85-70 Seton Hall 87-73 Seton Hall 78-65 Minneapolis, Indiana 92-69 G'town 81-74 G'town 69-61 N.C. St. 102-96 Minnesota 80-67 Duke 87-70 East Rutherford, N.J. Duke 70-63 Dyke stop Hoyas and we came through. It's been a great four years. If we could end it with a championship, it would be unbelievable." Already unbelievable was the play of Laettner, who finished head and shoulders above Mourning, who nearly made the Olympic team out of high school and as a freshman set a national record for blocked shots. "I thought I would just stay open because they'd concentrate on Danny," Laettner said. The win by the Blue Devils, 28 7, prevented a Final Four made up of two teams each from the Big East and Big Ten conferences. Duke advances to Seattle for a national semifinal matchup against Seton Hall, which beat Nevada-Las Vegas 84-61 Saturday. Illinois and Michi gan of the Big Ten meet in the other semifinal. Georgetown, 29-5, failed in its attempt to get back to Seattle for a repeat of their 1984 national cham pionship there. Duke lost to Louisville in the championship game in 1986 and was knocked out by eventual winner Kansas in the semifinals last year. "I'm really proud of them," Krzy zewski said of this year's team. "I can't say much more. We played a great team that made a run on us. We showed character." Illinois halts Syracuse MINNEAPOLIS It's been 37 years since Illinois has been to the NCAA's Final Four, but when they get there, they will see a familiar face. By beating Syracuse 89-86 Sunday for the Midwest Regional title, the Ulini shed their label as postseason flops and advanced to the NCAA semifinals at Seattle, against Big Ten Conference rival Michigan, a team Illinois beat 96-84 and 89-73 during the regular season. Michigan routed Virginia 102-65 in the Southeast Regional Saturday. "It's been a long time since Illinois has been to the Final Four," coach Lou Henson said. "It means a lot to all of us." Seton Hall 84-61 Minnesota Seattle, Washington Duke 85-77 The last time the Illini reached the Final Four was in 1952, when they lost in the semifinals to St. John's 61-59. They then beat Santa Clara 67-64 to finish in third place. They also were third in 1951 and 1949, their highest finishes ever in the NCAA tournament. Despite the two easy victories over Michigan this season, Henson said he was wary of the Wolverines. "Right now, they're awesome," he said. "I don't think there's another team in the tournament playing as well as they are now." Against No. 7 Syracuse, the third ranked Illini, 31-4, overcame a 13 point deficit with the Kelp of Nick Anderson's 27 points, Kenny Battle's 25 and strong second-half rebound ing. They outrebounded 41-24 for the game, including 19-6 in the second half, when they had several second chance opportunities. Anderson scored five points in a 7-2 run that broke the final tie of the game and put Illinois ahead to stay in the final six minutes. Kendall Gill scored 18 points for Illinois, which denied Syracuse its second Final Four trip in three years. Freshman Billy Owens scored 22 points for Syracuse, 30-8. Derrick Coleman and Stephen Thompson scored 17 points each and Sherman Douglas 15. The victory came in difficult circumstances for Illinois. Battle played only 13 minutes and scored . just four points in an 83-69 semifinal victory over Louisville on Friday night because of a bruised knee suffered in practice Thursday. Center Lowell Hamilton, Illinois' tallest starter at 6-foot-7, sprained his right ankle in the Louisville game and was hampered Sunday. And Smith was playing while his mother was hospitalized with a stroke suffered Friday. Henson guided New Mexico State to the Final Four in 1970, but the closest he had came in his 14 seasons a with the Illini prior to Sunday was a 54-51 loss to Kentucky in the 1984 Mideast Regional final. lllinios 89-86 Denver, Michigan 102-65 Lexington, Michigan with 64 ticks left, breezed by Reid's outstretched hand and gently rustled the net for a 90-85 Michigan lead. Rice wound up on his back in front of the Wolverines' bench, but he certainly had plenty of help in getting back up. "Glen Rice makes anybody a good coach," said Steve Fisher, Michigan's interim coach who was elevated from assistant when Bill Frieder left for Arizona State two days before the start of the NCAAs. "He's just a terrific, terrific player." Still, it wasn't over. Reid's layup cut it back to three with 50 seconds left, and Robinson's missed one-and-one try quickly gave the Tar Heels the ball and yet another chance to tie. But rather than jack up a poten tially game-tying three-pointer; UNC went inside to Reid, who misfired on a short hook shot. Sean Higgins, who had 14 points off the bench, rebounded for Mich igan, was fouled and made both free throws to account for the final score, leaving the Tar Heels to spend the last 27 seconds hoping Madden's three-point prayers would be ans wered. They weren't. "I felt I was in my groove," Rice said. "1 can basically tell after my first shot what kind of game I'm going Lacrosse broke its scoring drought. Tar Heel defenseman Paul Fitzpatrick, guard ing Wildcat attackman John McE voy, lost his footing behind the goal and McEvoyv now open, put the ball in the corner of the net over goalie Olmert's shoulder. But UNC's Neill Redfern added a last-second goal to give the Tar Heels a 7-2 lead at halftime. The Wildcats came out strong in the second half, but so did UNC's defense. Olmert came alive, making a couple of quick saves at the top of the quarter. At I0:2l of the third quarter, Tar Heel assist leader Michael Thomas hit teammate Dan Donnelly for the score, and exactly one minute later it was deja vu as Thomas hit Donnelly again to give the Tar Heels a 9-2 lead. Illinois 72-60 Ball lllinios 83-69 Ark. Louisville 93-84 Missouri 1 08-89- Syracuse 83-80 Colorado Syracuse 65-50 ... V . ..... W, , Okla. 124-81 La. Virginia 86-80 Virginia 1 04-88 M. S. Michigan 91-82 x! , v!'.,,! Michigan 92-87 Kentucky UNC 88-81 to have. If I hit my first shot, I know I'm on a roll." Rice did that Thursday night; in fact, he hit his first three attempts. Good thing for Michigan that he did because senior Jeff Lebo, playing his last game in a UNC uniform, made his first six shots, including five from three-point range, to get the Tar Heels off to a rocking start. . After Lebo drained back-to-back treys from the top of the key, UNC led 26-18 with 12:48 left in the half. Unfortunately, Lebo continued his recent trend of hyperventilation after a quick getaway and missed his four remaining floor shots of the evening. He did make two free throws, though, to finish with 19 points. Rice answered Lebo's flurry with a trey of his own, keying a 9-2 Michigan spurt that made it a one point game again. UNC, intent on cramming the ball inside to Reid, refused to relinquish the lead and built a 43-36 advantage behind three straight buckets from the 6-9 junior. But the final five minutes of the half belonged to the Wolverines, who closed with a 14-4 run that gave them a 50-47 lead at the intermission. Both teams seemed to wear down under the frenzied pace they had estab lished, as evidenced by the sloppiness The Tar Heel defense smothered the Wildcats in the second half. Olmert made four spectacular saves in a three-minute span. But the persistent Wildcats finally broke him with seven seconds left in the third quarter when Pal Palernoster fed John Dowd for Villanova's final goal of the day. Leading 10-3, the Tar Heels then opened the floodgates, scoring four goals in the first 4:22 of the fourth quarter, two of them by senior attackman Galgano. Senior attackman Corey Gavitt was in on the Tar Heels' last three goals, assisting on one and scoring two, the last with 1:30 left when goalie Pedersen hit a breaking Roli Breite necker, who then fed it to Gavitt for 1 llinois Illinois 77-71 16McNeeseSt. 8 Pittsburgh State 6864 9 Ball State 5 Arkansas 120-101 12LoyolaMarymount 4 Louisville Louisville 76-71 13 Ark. -Little Rock 6 Georgia Tech Texas 76-70 1 1 Texas 3 Missouri Missouri 85-69 14Creighton 7 Florida Colo. St. 68-46 1 0 Colorado State 2 Syracuse Syracuse 104-81 15Bucknell 1 Oklahoma Okla. 72-71 16 E. Tenn. St. 8 LaSalle Tech 83-74 9 La. Tech 5 Virginia Virginia 1 00-97 1 2 Providence 4 Florida State Tenn. St. 97-83 13 M. Tenn. St. 6 Alabama Alabama 86-84 11 S. Alabama 3 Michigan ' Michigan 92-87 14Xavier 7 UCLA UCLA 84-74 1 0 Iowa State 2 UNC UNC 93-79 15 Southern from page 12 of the last two minutes. After Terry Mills (16 points) put Michigan back in front with a fastbreak layup at the 2:01 mark, the teams exchanged turnovers until a Robinson miscue gave UNC a chance to hold for the last shot. King Rice, however, fired up an ill-advised three pointer with 10 seconds left, and the long rebound allowed Michigan's Rice to throw down a rousing slam dunk at the buzzer. Despite the late letdown, UNC came out strong in the second half and grabbed a 59-56 lead with 14:22 to go on Reid's baseline hook. But Rice who else? drilled a three pointer to start' Michigan on a 15 5 run that put the Wolverines up 71 64 with 1 1 minutes to play. "We got beat by a good basketball team tonight; I dont know where they got this inspiration from, but it was evident out there," Williams said. "But nothing can take away from what we accomplished this year." Nevertheless, the loss clearly left everyone on the Tar Heel team wondering what might have been. "Michigan played smart and they played within themselves," said Bucknall, a senior. "This is the best theyVe played ever, I think. I'm just sorry we had to play them." from page 12 the goal. Although the Heels won by a more-than-convincing margin, head coach Willie Scroggs was not pleased with his team's overall performance. "I was disappointed in our lack of intensity," he said. "We played hard defensively but we're not attacking enough." The Tar Heels will meet a wea kened but "very respectable" Univer sity of Maryland team next week, Scroggs said. "If we play the way we played today, they're going to eat us alive," he said. Duke, the co-host of the tourna ment, got past Villanova 16-10 Saturday on its home field, and then re-waxed the hapless Buckeyes 28-6 Sunday at Fetzer Field. 11