Kansas, Maryland Complete Final Four

Kansas jumped out to a lead they would not relinquish while Maryland was forced to battle through more than 20 ties and lead changes, but the end result was the same -- both teams earned berths in the Final Four Sunday.

Kansas 104, Oregon 86

Kansas met a team that wanted to run with them. They jumped all over the Oregon instead.

Drew Gooden and Nick Collison each had double-doubles by early in the second half Sunday, and top-seeded Kansas never trailed in a 104-86 rout of the Ducks that put the Jayhawks in the Final Four.

Kansas controlled the fast, end-to-end action in the Midwest Regional final and dominated the boards, outrebounding second-seeded Oregon 63-34. Indeed, Gooden and Collison outrebounded the Ducks all by themselves — 35 to 34 — and the Jayhawks grabbed 26 offensive rebounds, leading to 31 second-chance points.

"We knew the way to beat them was to beat them on the boards and get extra shots," Gooden said. "I think it was contagious. We were relentless out there on the backboards."

Gooden had 18 points and 20 rebounds, and Collison added 25 points and 15 rebounds, putting the Jayhawks in their first national semifinal since 1993 and third under coach Roy Williams.

But this is the first time in five tries that Williams has taken a top-seeded team to the Final Four. His other appearances came as a No. 3 in 1991, and a No. 2 in 1993.

Kansas will play Maryland in Atlanta next Saturday.

Two other Jayhawks nearly joined forwards Gooden and Collison with double-doubles. Freshman reserve Keith Langford had 20 points and eight rebounds, and Kirk Hinrich scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds.

"They crash the boards all the time, every single play," said Frederick Jones, who led the Ducks with 32 points. "Their guards came in and got some, too. It was an all-around effort."

The Jayhawks, the nation's highest-scoring team with a 91-point average, outmuscled and outhustled the beefier Ducks on the glass, fueling their up-tempo game.

"I liked it because it was up and down, even though we were beating each other for layups," Gooden said. "You probably can't see my feet right now. I've got my shoes off. My dogs are hurting."

Kansas led 48-42 at halftime and stretched its lead to 73-59 on a runner by Hinrich with 9:50 left.

Anthony Lever hit back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 10-2 Oregon run that made it 75-69 with 8:30 remaining. Lever's third 3-pointer made it 77-72 seconds later.

"I thought we were going to blow it out several times. But they're a hard-fighting team, a great team, and they didn't give in," Jayhawks point guard Aaron Miles said.

But Kansas scored the next 10 points, four by Collison, to end the Ducks' dreams of reaching the Final Four for the first time since they won the first NCAA championship in 1939.

"I told Nick and Drew to get on the backboard," Williams said. "I got on them a little bit in the first half and at halftime because I felt they were trying to be perimeter players. I told them, 'We're going to win this basketball game inside. We're going to win this game on the backboards. I don't need you guys to be perimeter players.'

"Drew took all that as constructive criticism. Twenty rebounds, what more can you say? Nick Collison battled his rear end off."

It appeared as though the Jayhawks were going to run away with it early when Hinrich's layup gave Kansas a 40-28 lead.

But the Ducks, playing in a regional final for the first time in 42 years, scored the next 12 points, seven by Jones, to tie it at 40 with 2:57 left in the first half. Jones had two slam dunks off steals and capped the burst with a 3-pointer.

Oregon had two chances to take the lead, but Luke Ridnour (nine points) missed a layup, and Jones missed a 3-pointer, and Collison's basket put the Jayhawks back ahead for good.

Collison helped Gooden provide a mismatch down low with the bigger but slower Robert Johnson and Chris Christoffersen, Oregon's 7-foot-2, 300-pound senior center.

"I didn't feel like I could do anything I wanted," Collison said. "I felt I had to be aggressive and take it at him. I couldn't settle for posting up and shooting a fallaway jumper, because then he wins that battle. I just tried to keep attacking him and going around him."

Ducks coach Ernie Kent had said the only way to run with Kansas was to play good defense and crash the boards.

"I remember probably five or six times, we did a pretty good job in the matchup zone and got them to miss, and then they'd get an easy putback," Ducks coach Ernie Kent said. "And when they get an easy putback — No. 1, it keeps us out of transition; No. 2, it gets us into foul trouble, reaching at the; and No. 3, it just gives them great looks."

Williams improved to 388-92 overall and 29-12 in the NCAA tournament, and Gooden said he's driven to win it all so his coach can put to rest talk of his never winning a national championship.

"Just stop giving him heat about reaching the Final Four or winning championships," Gooden said. "Because no matter what he does, he's always going to be a great coach."

Maryland 90, Connecticut 82

On a night when Maryland's senior stars led the way, struggling junior Steve Blake hit the shot that sealed a second straight trip to the Final Four.

The No. 1-seeded Terrapins beat second-seeded Connecticut 90-82 Sunday in an East Regional final where the lead swung back and forth for most of the final 13 minutes.

Lonny Baxter had a season-high 29 points, and fellow senior Juan Dixon scored 27 for Maryland, which reached the 30-victory mark for the first time in school history.

As the shot clock neared zero in the final minute of a tight game, Blake sank a 3-pointer his first bucket of the evening to make it 86-80, and the Terrapins weren't challenged again.

Just as there was no wild celebration after their regional semifinal win over Kentucky, the Terrapins were again matter of fact after beating Connecticut in one of the best games of the NCAA tournament.

Maryland scored the final eight points of the first half to take a 44-37 lead UConn's biggest deficit of the tourney to that juncture but sophomore forward Caron Butler brought the Huskies back.

He had 26 of his 32 points in the second half, most in a basket-for-basket run with the Terrapins which saw neither team lead by more than three points from the 14-minute mark until the final 36 seconds.

Baxter, the regional's Most Outstanding Player, was 7-for-12 from the field, 15-for-18 from the free throw line and grabbed nine rebounds. He had 24 points and 10 rebounds in the teams' first meeting this season, a 77-65 Maryland victory on Dec. 3.

The Huskies, who had won 12 games in a row, kept this one as close as a game can be.

Butler, who had a career-high 34 points in last Sunday's second-round victory over North Carolina State, only played 13 minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.

He hit his first three 3-point attempts in the second half, the last of which gave the Huskies a 54-53 lead with 13:11 left and started the frantic finish.

Baxter gave Maryland the lead for good with a hook shot that made it 81-79 with 2:08 left.

Connecticut was within 83-80 when Blake became the hero.

The point guard had a poor game to that point, missing his only two shots and being banished to the bench by coach Gary Williams with about 5 minutes left because of some shoddy defense.

Maryland took a timeout with 34 seconds left on the game clock and 14 on the shot clock. Blake wound up with the ball and his 3-pointer went through the net with 25 seconds remaining in the game.

After a UConn miss, Blake added two free throws for an 88-80 lead.

Chris Wilcox added 13 points for Maryland, which shot 50.9 percent (27-for-53) from the field and was 31-for-35 on free throws.

Tony Robertson had 15 points, and Taliek Brown 12 for UConn.

The Terrapins lost to eventual champion Duke in the national semifinals last season -- when they made the first Final Four trip in school history. Now Maryland heads back having won 17 of 18 games, the only loss coming to North Carolina State in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinals.