ASSOCIATED PRESS Virginia's Jason Clark cut under Chaminade's Leon Ballard yesterday at the Maui Invitational in Lahaina. Virginia won by 14.

Wildcats leave
Devils cold

Kentucky gets hot
against Arizona State
in the chilly Maui gym

---

By Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.com

LAHAINA >> Veteran tournament-goers got a good chuckle yesterday. Players complained of how chilly the newly air-conditioned Lahaina Civic Center was the during early games of the 19th EA Sports Maui Invitational.

Things heated up though for No. 15 Kentucky, which celebrated the opening of its 100th season of basketball with an 82-65 rout of Arizona State at the former sweatbox. The Wildcats were hot from the start, shooting 53 percent from the field in the first half, and took a double-digit lead seven minutes into the game against the Sun Devils, who were also playing their season opener.

Senior guard Keith Bogans' 3-pointer capped an 18-5 run that turned ASU's 4-2 lead into a 20-9 Kentucky advantage. Bogans scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor, grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and handed out four assists. It's the kind of performance that UK coach Tubby Smith expects from his All-American.

"We expect him to deliver and I think he's proud to have that load to carry for us," said Smith, whose team has a 2 p.m. tourney semifinal today with Virginia. "I thought it was one of Keith's better all-around games. He set the tempo for us defensively.

"We played a lot of zone tonight because, playing three days in a row, you have to be concerned about cramping. There are things we need to improve on, but you can see your guys starting to bond."

The Wildcats, helped by their vocal group of 500-plus fans, led 66-45 midway through the second half. But the Sun Devils didn't give up, closing to within 12 late several times, the last at 70-58 with 4:43 remaining.

Kentucky turned to senior forward Marquis Estill, who scored four of his 14 points and had one of his four blocks in the final 3:59.

Antwain Barbour and Gerald Fitch both added 13 for Kentucky.

Jason Braxton (16) and freshman sensation Ike Diogu (13) led the Sun Devils.

"I thought Kentucky came out and played a very aggressive game," ASU coach Rob Evan said. "They knocked us on our heals early, but I thought our guys came out and competed in the second half.

"It's going to be difficult to come back for that early game (9 a.m. today). We knew we needed to win to avoid that."

ASU was to take on host Chaminade this morning. The Silverswords have won just three games in the history of the tournament, the last in 1992 when they beat Stanford in double overtime for seventh place.

No. 20 Gonzaga 71, Utah 52: Rick Majerus is driving a red convertible this week. It matches the color of his Utah team's uniforms and his face now after the Utes were embarrassed by the Bulldogs.

Ronny Turiaf scored a career-high 24 points in 24 minutes and Gonzaga scored 19 straight points in the first half to take control.

The Bulldogs (2-0) advanced to today's semifinals against Indiana.

Utah (1-1) led 8-4 when Gonzaga went on the game-breaking run that started with a jumper by Scott Bankhead with 13:56 left in the first half and ended on a tip-in by Zach Gourde that made it 23-8 with 7:05 left.

Tim Drisdom hit a jumper with 6:47 left in the half that ended Utah's scoreless drought that lasted 8:47. Turiaf, a 6-foot-10 sophomore, then scored Gonzaga's next seven points as the Bulldogs went on to a 37-20 halftime lead.

No. 19 Indiana 84, Massachusetts 71: The Hoosiers are still looking for respect, despite a runner-up finish in last year's NCAA Tournament.

Placing No. 2 last year and being ranked No. 19 this week is not sitting well with coach Mike Davis. But getting past the Minutemen was a step in the right direction, according to the third-year coach, especially since all five of the Hoosier starters were in double figures.

"UMass was a very tough team to play against," Davis said. "We played too fast on offense. And made too many turnovers (19). Our goal is to try to be a better basketball team when we leave the island than when we came.

"George Leach and Jeff Newton are the keys to our team. If both play well, we can beat anyone."

It got a little shaky early for Newton, who picked up two fouls in the first 2:20. But Leach more than picked up the slack, finishing with 19 points and 16 rebounds.

Highly touted senior guard Tom Coverdale led the Hoosiers with 20 points and six assists. Newton returned for the entire second half, finishing with 14 points while Bracey Wright added 11 and Kyle Hornsby 10.

Virginia 86, Chaminade 72: Merv Lopes walked down the sidelines. There was 14:51 left in the game and the Silverswords were trailing 47-45 against the Cavaliers.

"We're going to win this," said Lopes, who coached Chaminade to the 77-72 upset of Virginia nearly 20 years ago.

"Merv the Magician" seemed to know something. Nine seconds later, Silverswords junior guard Bryon Sykes hit his only basket of the game to forge a 47-47 tie.

Another 53 seconds and the momentum had swung ... forcibly taken to the Virginia side of the court by 6-foot-8 senior Travis Watson. The All-America candidate scored six unanswered points, had two monster blocks and a steal in 66 seconds to jump start a 19-3 run that ended Chaminade's thoughts of surprising the Cavs a second time.

"We basically said we don't want it to happen again," said Virginia 6-9 sophomore forward Elton Brown, who came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points. "Coach (Pete Gillen) told us at halftime that we needed to play good defense. We basically sucked it up. They (the Silverswords) are a real good team."

EA Sports Maui Invitational At Lahaina Civic Center (2,400) Yesterday's results Virginia 86, Chaminade 72 No. 19 Indiana 84, Massachusetts 71 No. 15 Kentucky 82, Arizona State 65 No. 20 Gonzaga 71, Utah 52 Today's schedule Chaminade (0-2) vs. Arizona State (1-1), 9 a.m. Massachusetts (0-1) vs. Utah (1-1), 11 a.m. Kentucky (1-0) vs. Virginia (2-0), 2 p.m., ESPN Indiana (1-0) vs. Gonzaga (2-0), 4:30 p.m. ESPN

Maui Invitational