Commodores
trip Aggies

Maddux's 23 points lead Vandy
past New Mexico State

By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin

Drew Maddux hasn't been to the beach yet. He hasn't even dipped a toe in the ocean. The 6-foot-4 senior guard for Vanderbilt isn't much on night life, either, unless it concerns game time.

Maddux made sure his Commodores would enjoy the night life of the championship bracket, scoring 23 points to help lift Vanderbilt over New Mexico State, 79-72, last night at the Special Events Arena.

The victory puts the Commodores into tonight's 7:30 p.m. semifinal against No. 2-ranked Kansas.

"I live for these kinds of moments, for chances to play on a national stage," said Maddux. "It's why you play basketball. To be put on the national level in this kind of tournament.

"I've been eager to step on the court and prove that I'm a capable player and that we're a capable team. It seems like a lot of people aren't giving us much of a chance, but I kind of like where we stand right now. We've struggled three games in a row and we're due for a good game. I'm looking forward to (tonight's) game."

Vanderbilt (10-1) avoided a rematch with Ohio State this afternoon by scoring the game's final eight points. A month ago, the Commodores defeated host Ohio State, 64-54.

The loss dropped New Mexico State (7-4) into the 1:30 p.m. consolation semifinal with Ohio State. The Buckeyes (6-3) fell to Kansas, 69-56, in last night's second game.

With their outside shooting going cold about the time the Aggies started heating up, the Commodores saw a 14-point lead midway through the second half turn into a one-point deficit with 2:48 remaining. Louis Richardson's only 3-pointer of the game gave New Mexico State its lone lead of the night, 72-71.

It was short-lived. Vanderbilt finished with an 8-0 run, sparked by key baskets from Atiba Prater and Billy DiSpaltro.

"When Richardson hit that 3, it was a big shot," said Maddux, who hit 4 3-pointers, all in the first half. "He wasn't known as a perimeter shooter. They showed a lot of heart to even be in that position where his shot could give them the lead.

"I'm proud of our team. We didn't play well, haven't in three games. But we withstood their run, scored the rest of the points and won."

It was a case of too little, too late, according to Aggie guard Denmark Reid. In one span, the senior scored 15 of his team's 26 points -- including three consecutive 3-pointers -- to help New Mexico State rally from a 56-43 deficit to a 69-69 tie.

"We didn't play well the first half," said Reid, who finished with a game-high 24 points. "If we had played as hard the whole game as we did down the stretch, we could have won the game.

"We were fortunate to hit some of those 3s. We could have easily shot ourselves out of the game as we shot ourselves into the game. We were able to shut Drew (Maddux) down for a minute, but he got hot again and killed us."

Big second-half efforts by starter Billy DiSpaltro and reserve Dan Langhi also helped Vanderbilt. DiSpaltro scored 13 of his 17 points and grabbed six of his 10 rebounds in the second half. Langhi had six of his 10 points and five of his six rebounds in the half.

"We didn't have our 'A' game tonight, but we did have Drew," Vanderbilt coach Jan van Breda Kolff said. "Drew was in a zone, came out and established himself right off the bat. Hopefully, he'll stay in the zone for the next few days.

"We're looking forward to our next game. Obviously, Kansas is not the same team without (Raef) LaFrentz (out with a broken finger), but they're still a great team and still a favorite to win this tournament.

"We played hard most of the time, but didn't play well a lot of the time," Aggie coach Lou Henson said. "We had opportunities to win it at the end, but let them have some easy shots right when the game was on the line."

Richardson was the only other Aggie in double figures, finishing with 20 points and 13 rebounds.

Rainbows ready for Cornhuskers By Cindy Luis Star-Bulletin Life often imitates art. In the case of the University of Hawaii basketball team, its life in the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic nearly imitated the cinematic art of the movie that the team took in last week: Titanic. A loss to Brigham Young Saturday night would have been a disaster, sinking Hawaii's hopes of national attention and the chance at winning its own tournament for the first time since 1990. The Rainbows (8-1) survived Saturday, 73-53, and -- after an intense practice yesterday -- head into tonight's semifinal with Nebraska (9-2) with a renewed energy. "How we play depends on our intensity," said senior forward Micah Kroeger, whose 17 second-half points helped rescue Hawaii Saturday night. "If we come out and play hard from the beginning, we're tough to beat. But if we don't come out and play hard . . . well, just look at the scoreboard against Arkansas State (an 86-82 loss). You can tell when we don't. "We didn't click at all against BYU. We all played bad. We all had 'off' nights. Hopefully, that means we'll all be 'on' against Nebraska." The game features two of the country's premier guards in Hawaii's Anthony "AC" Carter and Nebraska's Tyronn Lue. Last summer, Lue beat out Carter for the final spot on the Team USA's 22-under team. "It will be fun to see him again and go against him," said Lue, who scored a career-high 36 points in Saturday's 80-65 win over Virginia. "He's very strong and very athletic. It should be a good game between us." A key match-up inside will be that of Hawaii's Eric Ambrozich and Nebraska's Venson Hamilton. The 6-10 Hamilton scored 13 points against Virginia while the 6-8 Ambrozich continued his strong play with 20 points and 10 rebounds against BYU.

Vanderbilt 79, New Mexico State 72

Commodores (10-1 overall, 1-0 OHRC)

		mp	fgm	fga	ftm	fta	reb	pf	tp
DiSpaltro  	29	6	8	5	6	10	3	17
Prater  	29	3	9	0	0	1	2	8
Bates	  	22	2	8	3	4	6	4	7
Ford	  	20	2	4	0	0	3	1	5
Maddux  	37	7	13	5	7	3	2	23
Langhi  	20	4	6	1	2	6	0	10
LaPointe 	21	1	3	3	4	5	1	5
Strong  	14	1	5	0	0	2	2	2
Cugini  	8	1	1	0	0	1	3	2
Team  						0	
Totals  	200	27	57	17	23	37	18	79

Aggies (7-4 overall, 0-1 OHRC)

		mp	fgm	fga	ftm	fta	reb	pf	tp
Reid	  	36	8	18	3	3	2	1	24
Richardson  	31	7	21	5	7	13	2	20
Leban	  	31	2	3	0	0	2	3	5
Gosa	  	28	3	11	1	4	5	4	7
Brodt	  	21	2	3	0	0	7	3	4
Ellison  	33	2	7	1	2	1	3	6
Noopila  	11	1	2	0	0	1	0	3
Davis	  	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tonella  	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	3
Team  						6	
Totals  	200	26	66	10	16	37	16	72

Halftime score--Vanderbilt 36, NM St. 32

3-point goals--VU 8-21 (Maddux 4-9, Prater 2-6, Ford 1-1, Langhi 1-2), NMSU 10-27 (Reid 5-11, Tonella 1-1, Leban 1-2, Noopila 1-2, Ellison 1-5, Richardson 1-5). Assists--VU 13 (Prater 5), NMSU 13 (Ellison 5). Turnovers--VU 20 (Prater 6), NMSU 23 (Reid 5, Richardson 5). Steals--VU 7 (Maddux 3), NMSU 9 (Richardson 3, Ellison 3). Blocked shots--VU 3 (DiSpaltro 1, Bates 1, LaPointe 1), NMSU 3 (Richardson 1, Gosa 1, Ellison 1.)

Technicals--Ellison.

Officials: Thornley, Shapiro, Ristau.