Childress Runs Heels Ragged
Randolph Childress said good-bye to the Atlantic Coast Conference with his career signature Sunday - a lastsecond basket that gave No. 7 Wake Forest an 82-80 victory over No. 4 North Carolina in the tournament title game. Childress penetrated the lane from near the center jump circle, drove to the right side of the lane and threw in a 10-footer with 4.6 seconds to go. That gave him a game-high 37 points and 107 for the tournament, the most points by one player since Len Rosenbluth got 106 in 1957.
The first meeting of the two teams in the conference finals boiled down to an inbounds pass from midcourt from Pierce Landry to Jerry Stackhouse on the right wing. Stackhouse launched a 3-pointer over Childress that bounced off the rim. Landry tried to tip it in but failed to control the ball as the buzzer sounded.
For Wake Forest (24-5), it was the school’s first ACC title since 1962, which was the second of successive seasons in which the Demon Deacons won the crown. With this title comes the league’s automatic NCAA berth.
North Carolina (24-5) not only lost the dramatic title game, but it also saw Rasheed Wallace fall with an injury to his left ankle with 7:41 to go in regulation. Depending on the severity of the injury, North Carolina’s route through the NCAA tournament could be a tough one without the 6-foot-10 sophomore.
SEC Championship
(3) Kentucky 95, (5) Arkansas 93, OT
Third-ranked Kentucky overcame a 6-point deficit in the final 38 seconds of overtime, with Anthony Epps’ two free throws with 19.4 seconds remaining giving the Wildcats (25-4) the lead in a victory over the Razorbacks (27-6) in the SEC tournament championship game at Atlanta.
Epps’ free throws gave the Wildcats a 94-93 advantage and Tony Delk hit 1 of 2 free throws with six-tenths of a second left to end the scoring after Arkansas’ Scotty Thurman failed on a 3-point shot with 2 seconds to play.
Big East Championship
(13) Villanova 94, (6) Connecticut 78
Kerry Kittles and Jason Lawson each scored 27 points and the Wildcats (25-7) withstood one furious rally in the second half before pulling away against the Huskies (25-4) for its first Big East tournament championship at New York.
The Huskies (25-4), the first team to repeat as Big East regular-season champions with a second straight 16-2 league mark, came up with an 8-minute stretch that brought them within 77-72 with 4:57 left.
But the rally ended there.
Big Eight Championhship
(19) Oklahoma St. 62, Iowa St. 53
Bryant Reeves scored 21 points as the Cowboys (23-9) held off the Cyclones (22-10) to win the Big Eight postseason tournament and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament at Kansas City, Mo.
Reeves, named the tournament’s most valuable player, keyed an Oklahoma State rally at the start of the second half as the Cowboys pulled ahead by as many as 15.
Metro Conference Championship
Louisville 78, S. Mississippi 64
At Louisville, Ky., Jason Osborne hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 7-0 spurt in the second half that carried the Cardinals (19-13) past the Golden Eagles (17-12)for its third straight Metro Conference tournament title.
Second-seeded Louisville, which lost 74-72 and 74-63 to fifth-seeded Southern Miss during the regular season, took control on Osborne’s 3 from the top of the key to go up 55-47 with 8:20 to go.
Big West Championship
Long Beach State 76, Nevada 69, OT
Long Beach State beat the Wolf Pack from Reno for the seventh straight time. This time it was an overtime triumph in the Big West Conference final at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas that put Long Beach into the NCAA tournament.
It looked as if Nevada was going to break the jinx when, trailing 36-28 at halftime, it rallied and led 65-61 with 1:33 left in regulation. Then Eric Brown hit a jumper, and with time running out Terrance O’Kelley also hit a jump shot to send the game into overtime, but it was all Long Beach in the extra period.
Other Top 25
(14) Purdue 73, Michigan 67
At West Lafayette, Ind., written off as a title contender at the beginning of the year, the Boilermakers (15-3 Big Ten, 24-6) finished the regular season with a win over Michigan (11-7, 17-13) to clinch their second straight Big Ten championship.