NCAA: Kansas State keeps slim lead against Xavier; Kentucky struggles to start 2nd half

NCAA: Kansas State keeps slim lead

Kansas State has been keeping the lead at six or seven, while Xavier has seemingly answered every basket with one of its own. The Wildcats still lead 56-49 while trying to avoid another upset in what has become the wild, wild West Regional.

You know, like top-seeded Syracuse, third-seeded Pittsburgh and fourth-seeded Vanderbilt. Remember those guys?

Kentucky has only one basket more than 4 minutes into the second half, and a layup and a follow by Cornell’s Louis Dale has the Carrier Dome crowd chanting “Go Big Red!”

Kentucky still leads 34-20 with 15:41 left, but Cornell is doing its best to try to trim the lead back to single digits and make a game of it.

Xavier is doing an excellent job of getting to the free throw line, even if it is just 12 of 17 once it gets there. That’s been a key to the game because Kansas State leads the nation in free throws (20) and free-throw attempts (30) per game.

The Wildcats had made just 2 of 5 freebies through the first 30 minutes.

Dominique Sutton and Wally Judge both have four fouls for Kansas State, and Jacob Pullen and Jamar Samuels have three each. Xavier isn’t immune to foul worries, though. Dante Jackson also has four, and Jamel McLean and Jason Love have three each.

Well, bad news for Kentucky fans. CBS has bagged its coverage for now in most regions in favor of the much closer Xavier-Kansas State game.

That might be good news for Cornell fans.

Denis Clemente just hit a 3-pointer and has 15 for the game, giving Kansas State a 49-44 lead with under 12 minutes to go. Brad Redford responded with one for Xavier, but Jamar Samuels converted an and-one inside to keep the lead at five.

Nobody’s guarding the guards in Salt Lake City!

The Xavier backcourt duo of Terrell Holloway and Jordan Crawford have combined for 23 points, the only two Musketeers in double-figures. Ditto for the backcourt mates of Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente for Kansas State, who have combined for 25 points.

Neither pair is shooting that well, but they sure are shooting a lot.

Kansas State has led by as many as 15, but Xavier led at the halftime and is staying right there in the second half. The Wildcats lead 44-43 with 13 minutes left.

The halftime box tells the tale for Cornell.

The Big Red have 12 turnovers, which puts them on pace to match their season high of 25 set against Harvard in January — when they won by 36.

Kentucky is no Harvard.

The Wildcats have 17 points off those turnovers, have outscored Cornell 24-6 in the paint and 13-0 on the fast break. Oh, and they’re dominating the boards 32-16, with a 6-1 lead on the offensive glass. Point guard John Wall has four points, five assists, two turnovers and one of Kentucky’s nine steals.

Cornell may be the Big Red, but right now Kentucky is the Blue Monster.

Kansas State has scored 16 second-chance points, one of the only reasons the Wildcats are clinging to a 44-38 lead. Xavier is getting to the foul line more and has forced five steals with about 15 minutes left in the game.

Just about everyone wearing K-State white has picked up three fouls — well, five of the guys — so that could become an issue. Frank Martin reached Defcon-1 when Jacob Pullen picked up his third and immediately sat the star guard.

Kudos to the folks at CBS, who gave the nation a short look-in at Kansas State coach Frank Martin’s halftime speech. The gist of it: The Wildcats are playing “silly and selfish” and “you can’t do that this time of the year.”

K-State came out and has shown some better ball movement, with Curtis Kelly dumping it off to Luis Colon inside for an easy basket and then Denis Clemente driving for an easy bucket.

Kansas State has edged back ahead 37-34 about 2 minutes into the second half.

Well, at least the Cornell fans will have a short drive home, even if it ends up being an unhappy one. The Big Red’s campus in Ithaca is only a 55-mile drive from the Carrier Dome.

Kentucky extended its defense well onto the perimeter, creating 11 turnovers and turning them in 15 points. The Wildcats closed the first half on a 30-6 run, building a 32-16 lead that seems much bigger considering Cornell can’t even get off a decent shot.

Ashley Judd was on hand to see Kentucky run roughshod through New Orleans, and she’s in the crowd cheering on her alma mater in Syracuse, N.Y.

She has a lot to love.

This time it was Patrick Patterson pulling down a rebound and throwing it ahead to John Wall, who jammed it home for a 25-16 lead. While the blue-clad Wildcat fans are vastly outnumbered — about 20,000 are wearing red — they’re raising their voices to impressive decibel levels.

John Wall gathered in a rebound moments ago, raced up the middle of the court and tossed a nifty pass ahead to Patrick Patterson, who put down an easy dunk for a 20-14 lead.

Wall and Patterson are wearing Kentucky jerseys tonight, but it’s easy to envision those two guys wearing Bucks or Bobcats or Nuggets jerseys and doing the exact same thing.

Wall has only taken one shot — he missed — but has shown that he is the marquee point guard in the nation this season with three assists and no turnovers. The game had been plodding along at the pace of penguins stuck in mud, but Kentucky is beginning to assert itself. ___

Cornell has been hanging tough, trailing 16-12 with 7:52 left in the first half. The Big Red hit two early 3s, but the Kentucky defense isn’t allowing many open looks and the Wildcats have a 7-0 advantage in points off turnovers.

It’s been the best of times, it’s been the worst of times — and it’s definitely been a tale of two halves in Salt Lake City.

Kansas State dominated the first 10 minutes before Xavier dominated the final 10 minutes, and the result is pretty much a stalemate. Terrell Holloway made a mistake by getting whistled for a 5-second call with 10 seconds left in the first half, but Denis Clemente couldn’t do anything with the last shot and the Musketeers lead 32-31 at the break.

The outcome will depend on which teams come out in the second half, but the best-case scenario would be if the best of both teams showed up. How good would it be to see the Kansas State team from early in the game and the Xavier team from late in the first half slugging it out the final 20 minutes for a spot in the final eight?

The first half has breezed by at Energy Solutions Arena, mainly because the two teams have each used big runs spanning roughly 10 minutes.

Kansas State leaped out to a 17-4 advantage on the strength of a 15-0 run, but Xavier has answered behind a 28-12 surge that has given the Musketeers a 32-31 lead with 46.7 seconds remaining in the first half.

Cornell entered its game against Kentucky with 321 3-pointers and already have a couple more, but their 10-2 lead has been quickly reversed.

Kentucky is on a 12-0 run, with most of the points coming from the big guys inside, and the physical advantage of the Wildcats is seemingly wearing on the smaller Big Red. Ryan Wittman needs to keep hitting from outside if Cornell wants to remain in the game.

Xavier has answered the early thrust by Kansas State with a 10-2 run of its own, and will be headed to the foul line with a chance to tie the game 28-all when the media timeout is over.

The Wildcats have allowed the Musketeers back in the game because of an unsightly series of offensive possessions: missed jumper, missed 3-pointer, turnover, missed layup, turnover, missed jumper, turnover, missed jumper, missed 3-pointer.

You get the idea.

Terrell Holloway and Jordan Crawford have scored all the points during the run for Xavier, a pair of veteran backcourt guys who aren’t likely to get rattled by K-State’s big early run.

The Carrier Dome might as well be a transplanted Newman Arena on steroids.

The place was rocking as Cornell jumped out to a 10-2 lead, with yellow-clad West Virginia fans on their feet, no doubt believing the Ivy League upstarts provide a little easier path to the Final Four than the big blue team from the bluegrass state.

In fact, there might be a couple of Cornell fans in Salt Lake City. The score was announced in that arena moments ago and received a huge ovation.

DeMarcus Cousins scored two quick baskets inside for Kentucky to trim the lead to 10-6, and the Wildcats’ size advantage quickly became obvious. Cousins and Patrick Patterson should be able to have a big impact on the game if they begin to get touches in the paint. ___

Cornell strikes first! Whatever happens from here, the Big Red will be able to say it led top-seeded Kentucky in the round of 16.

There might not be two more different teams left in the NCAA tournament than the guys that are tipping off in Syracuse: Cornell and Kentucky.

The Big Red players are in the Ivy League, have IQs that are off the charts, goof off at news conferences and scrap for every single win with a group of seniors.

Kentucky plays in the SEC, is on national television all the time, considers anything less than an NCAA tournament title abject failure and has a roster loaded with NBA prospects who might not even stick around for their sophomore seasons.

One team wears red, the other wears blue. Can’t get more different than that.

One thing that should worry Kentucky is that no Ivy League team has lost a regional semifinal in 32 years. After all, Penn in 1979 went to the Final Four.

It took a 3-pointer from Dante Jackson from somewhere near the Silicon Valley to finally break the K-State run, which had reached 17-0. The Musketeers still trail 19-7.

Many of the K-State points had come on offensive putbacks, which is a scary thought for Xavier: The Wildcats scored 16 points off 14 offensive rebounds when they won the first meeting in December.

Wally Judge scored the final points during the big spurt, and it bears mentioning that he’s only a freshman. In fact, Kansas State is a young team, with Denis Clemente the only significant contributor who will graduate.

Jacob Pullen may get some NBA interest, but there isn’t much of a market for 6-foot shooting guards, so he would be well-served to stick around for his senior year and develop into a true point guard.

Kansas State is really causing problems for Xavier at both ends of the court, and much of the credit for that goes to Dalonte Hill. Frank Martin’s top assistant coach is known for his exceptional recruiting ability — remember those Michael Beasley and Bill Walker guys? — but was also tasked with putting together the scouting report on Xavier.

Well, his gameplan sure seems to be working.

The Wildcats are riding a 15-0 run to take a 17-4 lead with under 13 minutes to go. K-State is 8 of 13 from the field, led by seven points from Jacob Pullen, while Xavier is shooting just 2 of 10 from the floor.

So, you think these teams are over it?

They’ve had some unfriendly games in the recent past, including earlier this season. Mark Lyons of Xavier and Denis Clemente of Kansas State haven’t forgotten, jawing at each other and both getting technicals as the refs try to take control early.

Curtis Kelly showed a nice move down low and Kansas State has used an 8-0 spurt to take a 10-4 lead with about 15 minutes to go in the first half.

Xavier’s Jordan Crawford of “I dunked on LeBron” fame opened the game against K-State with — what else? — a dunk off a nice alley-oop pass from Terrell Holloway.

Both teams are running up and down the court in the early minutes, a pace that could favor the Wildcats. They are relatively deep and have strong athletes at every position, and play with a toughness that mirrors the hotheaded approach of coach Frank Martin.

Kentucky has just taken the Carrier Dome floor to a chorus of boos, while a huge ovation swept through the building as Cornell took the floor. The north end of the dome is a sea of red, while the south end is half red and the other half blue.

Considering how well Kentucky travels, it’s a pretty decent crowd in favor of the Big Red.

Kentucky is among the favorites left in the tournament after fellow top seeds Kansas and Syracuse have both lost. Cornell is the Ivy League darling that is trying to pull a Northern Iowa against the big bully from the power conference.

Kansas State and Xavier have just tipped in Salt Lake City. Kansas State is two wins from its first Final Four since 1964, while Xavier has never been in the national semifinals.

The Wildcats avenged a 26-point loss on New Year’s Eve 2007 with a grinding, 15-point win over Xavier in the Little Apple earlier this season. The winner takes on Butler, which knocked off top-seeded Syracuse, for spot in Indianapolis.

Keep an eye on some terrific guards in this one, Jordan Crawford for Xavier and Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente for Kansas State. All three of them can fill it up.

Kevin Jones and Da’Sean Butler have led West Virginia one step closer to the Final Four.

The duo combined for 30 points in a game that was about as pretty to watch as a root canal, and the defensive-minded Mountaineers overpowered Washington 69-56 to set up a date with top-seeded Kentucky or 12th-seeded upstart Cornell on Saturday.

Justin Holiday had 14 points and Isaiah Thomas added 13 for Washington, which committed an unsightly 22 turnovers. The Huskies were also outrebounded 40-25, had eight shots blocked and committed 19 personal fouls.

Yikes.

Every time it seems that Washington creates a turnover, the Huskies give it right back to West Virginia. Both teams have committed 21 turnovers, a ghastly number for a junior high game, much less a regional semifinal.

No wonder Lorenzo Romar ripped off that suit coat.

Bob Huggins’ teams are accustomed to winning ugly, though, and it sure looks like the Mountaineers are about to win their 30th game according to that recipe. ___

Kevin Jones has converted from in close for West Virginia after misses by Da’Sean Butler and Kevin Ebanks, which is keeping the Huskies at bay.

Washington has 10 fouls, so it could come down to free throws for the Mountaineers, who hit 78 percent of their tries in the first two rounds. West Virginia leads 61-50 with 3:39 left.

West Virginia star Da’Sean Butler crashed hard to the floor moments ago, but he’s back up and still playing. The current run by West Virginia has caused Washington coach Lorenzo Romar to rip off his suit coat and earn a technical foul — as if things weren’t going bad enough for the Huskies. Devin Ebanks and Butler made four straight free throws.

The Mountaineers are on a 20-6 run that has swelled the lead to 56-43 with under 8 minutes left, and it’s beginning to look like the vaunted Big East will have one team left in the round of eight. The score of Butler-Syracuse was just announced in the arena in Syracuse, N.Y.

Washington has slapped on a little three-quarter court pressure in an attempt to create a turnover, and West Virginia did a nice job of breaking it.

Only then did they finally turn it over.

Isaiah Thomas came back at the other end and hit a 3-pointer to trim the lead back to single digits, and Washington created another turnover in the halfcourt on the ensuing West Virginia possession. This time the Huskies gave it right back — a missed opportunity.

Gordon Hayward had 17 points, Shelvin Mack scored 14 and Butler used its staunch defense — and a little mid-major magic — to beat top-seeded Syracuse 63-59.

The Big East regular-season champions struggled all game and time eventually ran out, as coach Jim Boeheim was denied another trip to the round of eight. Instead, it will be Butler getting the winner of Xavier-Kansas State for a chance at the Final Four in Indianapolis.

Syracuse fell behind by seven in the final minute, but missed free throws gave the Orange one final chance. Scoop Jardine came up the court with about 10 seconds left trailing by four, but he spun at the 3-point line and forgot to take the ball with him. Butler grabbed the loose ball and ran out the remainder of the time.

Wes Johnson, a transfer from Iowa State, capped his first season for Syracuse with a 6-for-10 shooting performance and 17 points. It also might be the final game for the 6-foot-7 junior forward, who is sure to have some NBA folks keeping tabs on him.