East Region
Cougars Roll to 1st NCAA Win Since '83
Clark Scores 19 To Lead the Way: Washington State 70, Oral Roberts 54
Associated Press
Friday, March 16, 2007; Page E10
SACRAMENTO, March 15 -- Desperate to do something after a long stint on the bench, Washington State's Kyle Weaver told himself to read Yemi Ogunoye's eyes.
Ogunoye made it easy -- his inbounds pass went straight into Weaver's hands.
  Washington State's Kyle Weaver, left, makes a basket over Oral Roberts Marchello Vealy in the second half during the first round of the NCAA East Regional basketball tournament at Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday. (Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP)   The Gators are too much to handle in an 84-75 victory over Ohio State for their second straight national championship. On Hoops: Florida is a team for the ages, because in winning back-to-back national titles they took a very good team's best shot and still came out victorious. The Buckeyes are setback by the Gators' three-point shooting every time they try to make a run. Greg Oden, the public introvert, and Joakim Noah, the unabashed extrovert, share a common desire to savor college. Select CompanyFlorida joined a small group who repeated as men's basketball champion:Oklahoma State 1945-46 Kentucky 1948-49 San Francisco 1955-56 Cincinnati 1961-62 UCLA 1964-65, 1967-73 Duke 1991-92 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPFINAL FOURREGIONAL FINALSSouth West Midwest EastMULTIMEDIA Photos: Snapshots from the 2007 NCAA tournament. Video: Charting Texas freshman Kevin Durant's rapid rise to the top. Video: Post columnist Sally Jenkins talks about Durant. ON OUR SITETeam-by-Team Analysis:Coaching Tree: The Six Degrees of March's Mayhem (PDF) Flashback: A Quarter-Century Worth of Memories (PDF) TOURNEY TRACKER Share and compare your NCAA brackets. |
The Cougars' star stole the ball beneath his own basket and dunked to barely beat the halftime buzzer, and Washington State rode that momentum swing right into the second round of the NCAA tournament.
"I got a good one," Weaver said, smiling in a businesslike locker room. "That was big-time for us, having that momentum."
Reserve Ivory Clark scored 19 points and Weaver had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists to help the third-seeded Cougars win their first NCAA game in 24 years with a 70-54 victory over 14th-seeded Oral Roberts on Thursday in the East Region.
The Cougars will face sixth-seeded Vanderbilt in the second round Saturday after the Commodores defeated George Washington, 77-44, in the second game Thursday at Arco Arena.
Taylor Rochestie added 15 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, and connected for a key three-pointer late as Washington State pulled away with 59 percent shooting and only one turnover in the second half. Clark provided a big boost off the bench by matching his career best with five blocks and pulling down six boards for the Cougars, whose special season will last at least another game.
They went from last place in the Pacific-10 a year ago to second under first-year coach Tony Bennett. Fans chanted "Tony! Tony!" before the game, then Washington State (26-7) went out and won its first NCAA tournament game since George Raveling's team beat Weber State, 62-52, in 1983.
"We're happy to be here, but we're not going to stop at that," guard Derrick Low said.
Ken Tutt scored 10 of his 19 points in the first half to lead Oral Roberts (23-11), the Mid-Continent Conference tournament champion that reached the NCAAs for the second straight season and fourth time overall. The Golden Eagles lost their opener for the second consecutive year.
