Kansas Tames Nash, Stuffs Santa Clara

To fully appreciate the dominance of Kansas point guard Jacque Vaughn in Sunday’s 76-51 win over Santa Clara, don’t bother looking at his line in the box score.

Look instead at the statistics of his counterpart, Steve Nash.

Nash, who had 28 points in a first-round win over Maryland, missed his first eight shots and finished with seven points on 1-of-11 shooting as Kansas opened a 12-0 lead and never was threatened by the Broncos.

“I’m the prototype point guard,” said Vaughn, who had two points and six assists. “I’m not going to worry about the points.”

The game was billed as a showcase for two of the nation’s top point guards. But with Vaughn shutting down Nash, the West Coast Conference’s most valuable player, and Kansas center Raef LaFrentz dominating inside, it turned into a rout.

Kansas coach Roy Williams said the key was stopping Nash’s penetration, a job Vaughn handled well.

“Everything goes back to the first 10 minutes. We really took it under the chin early,” Nash said. “They got some inside baskets. I had a chance to answer with outside shots. That’s what my job is, and I didn’t do it.”

LaFrentz hit his first seven shots and scored 19 points as the Jayhawks reached the Round of 16 for the fourth straight year. Santa Clara has not reached the third round of the NCAA tournament since 1954.

“Defensively, we were sensational,” said Williams, whose team faces Arizona in the regional semifinal Friday in Denver. “The first half was about as well as we’ve played all season.”

Kansas 76, Santa Clara 51

Santa Clara (20-9) - Sedlock 1-8 0-0 3, Dunne 4-10 1-2 10, Graves 1-6 2-3 4, Nash 1-11 4-4 7, Garnett 2-7 3-4 8, Zurek 2-6 0-0 5, L.Pierce 4-9 0-1 9, Anderson 0-1 1-5 1, Von Buchwald 1-3 0-0 2, Coleman 0-1 0-0 0, Hofmann 0-1 2-2 2, Willett 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 16-64 13-21 51.

Kansas (28-4) - Pollard 3-6 3-4 9, P.Pierce 2-11 1-3 5, LaFrentz 9-10 1-2 19, Vaughn 1-6 0-2 2, Haase 3-8 4-4 12, Robertson 1-4 3-4 6, Pugh 2-6 0-4 4, Pearson 1-3 0-0 2, Williams 3-4 3-4 9, Rayford 0-0 0-0 0, Thomas 2-4 0-0 6, Whatley 0-1 2-2 2, McGrath 0-1 0-0 0, Ransom 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-64 17-29 76.

Halftime-Kansas 46, Santa Clara 22. 3-Point goals-Santa Clara 6-25 (L.Pierce 1-1, Sedlock 1-3, Dunne 1-3, Zurek 1-3, Garnett 1-5, Nash 1-7, Anderson 0-1, Coleman 0-1, Willett 0-1), Kansas 5-25 (Thomas 2-4, Haase 2-7, Robertson 1-3, Whatley 0-1, McGrath 0-1, Pearson 0-2, P.Pierce 0-3, Vaughn 0-4). Fouled out- None. Rebounds-Santa Clara 44 (Nash, Sedlock 8), Kansas 50 (Haase 8). Assists-Santa Clara 11 (Nash 6), Kansas 18 (Vaughn 6). Total fouls-Santa Clara 20, Kansas 20. Technicals-Santa Clara Bench. A-12,441.

Arizona 87, Iowa 73

Sure, Arizona could sprint, but when the Wildcats popped in 3-pointers galore, they left Iowa dazed.

Arizona (26-6) knocked down seven 3-pointers in the first 14 minutes, ruled the boards, and ran Iowa (26-6) silly to start off an 87-73 victory and gain a berth in the regional semifinals in Denver.

Six of the third-seeded Wildcats scored in double figures, led by Ben Davis’ 17 points.

Reggie Geary, who scored 16 points, hit three of his first four 3-point shots to lead the Wildcats to a 40-24 advantage before No. 21 Iowa closed to 48-37 at halftime.

“They wanted to sit in a zone and see if we could make them,” Geary said. “That’s fine with us. They saw what happened.”

Iowa knew about Arizona’s speed, but couldn’t find a way to cope.

“We saw it on tape, but it’s a lot different seeing it live,” Iowa guard Andre Woolridge said. “They came out flying and really stuck the shots. They got them from a lot of different people. It seemed that we were always a step slow.”

Iowa (23-9) - Murray 2-9 2-2 6, Settles 6-15 1-3 13, Millard 6-11 0-0 14, Woolridge 6-17 0-0 12, Glasper 1-2 0-0 3, Bowen 1-2 0-2 2, Kingsbury 4-11 4-5 16, Koch 2-2 2-2 7, Helmers 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-69 9-14 73.

Arizona (26-6) - McLean 4-8 3-4 13, Williams 5-10 0-0 11, Davis 7-11 3-5 17, Simon 5-13 4-4 15, Geary 4-7 5-6 16, Dickerson 5-13 2-5 13, Bramlett 1-1 0-0 2, Terry 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-64 17-24 87.

Halftime-Arizona 48, Iowa 37. 3-Point goals-Iowa 8-19 (Kingsbury 4-8, Millard 2-3, Koch 1-1, Glasper 1-2, Woolridge 0-1, Murray 0-1, Settles 0-3), Arizona 8-26 (Geary 3-5, McLean 2-5, Williams 1-4, Dickerson 1-4, Simon 1-7, Terry 0-1). Fouled out- None. Rebounds-Iowa 36 (Settles 12), Arizona 42 (Davis 14). Assists-Iowa 16 (Woolridge 7), Arizona 24 (Geary 13). Total fouls-Iowa 21, Arizona 16.