UConn Bites Indiana 78-68
If this year's Indiana Hoosiers had as much staying power as their coach, they might still be alive in the NCAA tournament.
Instead, Connecticut will be taking another trip to the final 16 after rallying to beat the Hoosiers 78-68 Saturday, much to the displeasure of Indiana coach Bob Knight.
Richard Hamilton scored 23 points and Khalid El-Amin had 22 points and eight assists for the second-seeded Huskies, who trailed by eight points in the first half and by five at halftime before coming back to win.
The Huskies (31-4) will bring a 10-game winning streak into the East Regional semifinal against 11th-seeded Washington on Thursday. Connecticut's 31 wins matches the school record set by the 1989-90 team, the first under coach Jim Calhoun to reach the NCAA tournament.
Calhoun is 15-6 in seven NCAA tournament appearances at UConn. This is the sixth time his team has reached the round of 16, although he has never gotten into the Final Four.
Knight has won three NCAA tournaments and 720 games since taking over at Indiana in 1972, but this year's team provided him with plenty of frustration. The Hoosiers often played well in extended stretches but frequently went into costly lapses, most notably this month.
It happened in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament against Ohio State, when a 17-point lead dwindled to four. It happened in Thursday's first-round game against Oklahoma when the Hoosiers blew a 19-point lead before rallying to win in overtime.
It happened on Saturday, too.
Knight paid $10,000 to coach against Oklahoma rather than receive a one-game suspension stemming from a dispute with a referee during a Feb. 24 game.
He probably would have paid good money NOT to witness the pivotal two-minute stretch in the second half that put Connecticut in command.
Indiana led 49-47 before a dunk by Jake Voskuhl started a 9-0 spree. During the run, Knight bolted from his chair on the bench and sat on the scorer's table, a frown across his face.
The Hoosiers closed to 58-54, but a runner by Hamilton capped a 5-0 burst that made it 63-54 with 6:42 remaining.
Indiana fought back to within four points, but a 3-pointer by Hamilton gave the Huskies a 73-66 lead with 64 seconds to go.
Andrae Patterson, playing in his final college game, scored 23 points and A.J. Guyton had 17 for Indiana (20-12), which was 6-0 in second-round games since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
The Hoosiers were vying to reach the final 16 for the fifth time in the 1990s. But Patterson and the rest of the seniors will leave after winning only once in the NCAA tournament.
The Hoosiers missed their first five shots and had two turnovers in the opening four minutes while Connecticut went up 6-0. Indiana then made 16 of its next 25 field gol attempts and took a 41-36 halftime lead.
It was only the eighth time in 35 games that UConn trailed at halftime.
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