Thursday, November 22, 2001
LAHAINA, Maui >> An hour after the two teams had left it all on the Lahaina Civic Center court, players from No. 1 Duke and tournament darling Ball State shared an elevator ride. Duke ends
Ball State’s rollBut on Maui the Cardinals proved
they can play with the bestBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comCardinals guard Patrick Jackson was in the middle of several Blue Devil jerseys. Three days ago, Jackson might have been considered an interloper; last night, he was right where he belonged:
With college basketball's elite.
Jackson and his Ball State teammates surprised everyone but themselves by gaining last night's title game of the 18th EA Sports Maui Invitational. Although the Cardinals fell 83-71 to the defending national champs, Ball State earned the respect of Duke, the two ranked teams they had defeated this week -- No. 4 Kansas and No. 3 UCLA -- and a national TV audience.
Cardinals coach Tim Buckley didn't get that anticipated call from BSU's most famous alumnus David Letterman. However, the second-year coach couldn't say enough about how his team answered the call against the Blue Devils.
"We played one of the best college programs to come along in a long time, one that we want to emulate," said Buckley. "We fell behind at halftime, but I told my kids they had played 100 minutes (collectively) and only had three bad minutes.
"They never quit."
Ball State (2-1) led by as many as nine early. Jackson's 3-pointer, the Cardinals' fifth of their opening salvo, put BSU up 33-29 with 6:16 left before halftime.
The "bad three minutes" Buckley referred to was what Duke's Mike Dunleavy called "settling in." Carlos Boozer scored the first of his 13 points to key a 6-0 run that gave the Blue Devils the lead for good at 38-33.
Helped by some questionable officiating (BSU had 15 fouls by halftime, Duke 7), the Blue Devils continued to pull away to a 49-39 lead by intermission.
Dunleavy, with just 5 first-half points, opened the second half on a tear, scoring his team's first 8 points and 11 of a 20-5 opening spurt. Duke led by as many as 26 (74-48) midway through the second half when Ball State went on a run of its own.
Helped by 3-pointers from Jackson and Theron Smith, Ball State cut the lead to 10, 76-66, with 1:35 left. The Blue Devils went to a slowdown game, milking the shot clock and thwarting any hopes of a Cardinal comeback.
It was Mike Krzyzewski's 700th game as Duke coach and his third MIT title. The Blue Devils, 9-0 in this event, also had their third tourney MVP in Dunleavy, who finished with 16 points. He was joined on the team by Duke guard Jason Williams, Jackson of Ball State, UCLA's Jason Kapono and Drew Gooden from Kansas.
"It was a big-time game," said Krzyzewski after his team won its 13th straight dating back to last season. "I thought our defense was excellent and that set the tone for the game."
Williams led Duke (3-0) with 22 points. Chris Duhon and Boozer finished with 13 points apiece, while Boozer grabbed 11 rebounds, all defensive.
Jackson finished with 21 for Ball State and Chris Williams 17.
"Their backcourt was great," Jason Williams said of BSU's Jackson and Chris Williams. "Jackson's the fastest guard I've ever played against. They're going to cause problems for anyone they play."
Last night, Jackson and the Blue Devils got off on different floors. One thing was certain, however.
Ball State basketball had arrived.
In the third-place game, No. 3 UCLA used a hot-shooting first half to hold off South Carolina 89-77.
No. 4 Kansas wore down Seton Hall 80-62 for fifth place. In the seventh-place game, Houston rallied past host Chaminade 76-73, handing the Silverswords their 27th straight loss in this event.
THIRD-PLACE GAME
No. 3 UCLA 89, South Carolina 78: The Gamecock fans started chanting "U-S-C, U-S-C" as their team closed to 51-38 early in the second half. Not smart.It only inspired UCLA, whose football team lost to the other USC -- crosstown rival Southern California -- Saturday. The Bruins (2-1) used a 17-7 run to take control of the game and the Gamecocks (1-2).
"I think we used the setback of losing to Ball State (on Tuesday) as a positive," said UCLA coach Steve Lavin.
Showing more emotion and intensity than they had against the Cardinals the day before, the Bruins shot 78 percent (22 of 28) from the floor in rolling out to a 48-30 lead at halftime. UCLA cooled off to 65 percent in the second half, finishing at 72.9 percent for the game, the second-best field-goal percentage in school history.
"They shot extremely, extremely well," said first-year Carolina coach Dave Odom. "I don't remember any team ever shooting like that.
"But I think of where we were at halftime (down 48-30) and how far we came back ... I'm very proud of my team for hanging in there."
The Gamecocks cut it to 11 on Jamel Bradley's fifth 3-pointer with 1:22 remaining. The Bruins relied on free throws to extend their lead in the final minute, hitting six consecutive from the line and 7 of 8 to ice the win.
T.J. Cummings, replacing Dan Gadzuric (left ankle), finished with career highs of 25 points and nine rebounds. Cummings went 11-for-12 from the field
For the Gamecocks, Bradley had 21, 18 coming on 3-pointers.
FIFTH-PLACE GAME
No. 4 Kansas 80, Seton Hall 62: Roy Williams' first loss as Jayhawks coach came against the Pirates in the 1988 Great Alaska Shootout, the only other time KU had faced The Hall.The series is now tied, thanks in part to a 17-0 run midway through the second half by Kansas and a tournament record-tying rebounding effort by Nick Collison.
Collison grabbed 19, 10 in the second half, to tie the mark set last year by Arizona's Michael Wright against Chaminade. The Jayhawks outrebounded the Pirates 57-32, with Drew Gooden pulling down 12 in addition to his 16 points.
"You can't beat a team being beat by 25 rebounds," said Seton Hall coach Louis Orr. "They showed why they are No. 3 in the country. They stepped up their defense and we couldn't run our offense.
"Our meat and potatoes is the perimeter game. It was a game of living by the 3 and dying by the 3."
The Pirates (2-2) hit six 3-pointers to take an 18-15 lead. Seton Hall led by as many as 10, at 20-10, and were up 29-20 when Kansas started its comeback.
The Jayhawks went on a 6-1 run to close out the half then opened the second with a 9-1 run to grab a 36-31 lead. An 11-0 spurt put Kansas ahead for good at 49-46.
The Pirates pulled to within 55-54 with 7:48 to go but when a Kansas basket was waved off and a charge called against Collison, the Jayhawks got mad. Then they got rolling, scoring 17 unanswered points to lead 72-54 with 3:54 to go.
Collison finished with 22 points to lead the Jayhawks. Andre Barrett led The Hall with 18, all on 3-pointers.
SEVENTH-PLACE GAME
Houston 76, Chaminade 73: If Aaron Griess had the ability to stop the game with 5:23 to go, the Silversword coach would have.His team had the lead (68-67) and the ball.
"But we lost our concentration and focus," said the second-year coach. "We stopped attacking. I told them we had to get points on every possession. Instead, we got no points on three possessions and allowed them to score three times."
The Cougars scored six unanswered points to take the lead for good at 73-68 with 39.2 seconds left. It was huge relief for Houston coach Ray McCallum, whose team had lost both exhibitions as well as its first two MIT games.
"This made it a successful trip for us," said McCallum. "With five minutes left, I was concerned that they weren't going to respond, especially since our senior captain (George Williams) fouled out (with 8:16 to go).
"But I give credit to our bench. And I consider Dominic Smith the No. 1 clutch free-throw shooter in the country."
Price sank four free throws in the 12 seconds to put Houston up, 75-70, with 28.3 seconds remaining. Chaminade pulled to within 76-73 on Albert Powell's sixth 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left but it was not enough to give the Silverswords their first MIT win since 1992.
"This hurts badly," said Griess. "This is a game we could have one. You don't get many opportunities to do something like this.
"I think we learned we can compete but we need to learn to show up for the entire game."
Smith, playing all 40 minutes, led Houston (1-2) with 21 points.
For Chaminade, Powell had 23 points, while Jaborri Thomas added 17 and Leon Ballard 16.