Kentucky Discovers Its Depth, Edges Iowa

Kentucky, the team that coach Rick Pitino keeps insisting has no depth, showed plenty Saturday in a gritty 75-69 victory over Iowa in the second round of the NCAA West Regional.

The defending champion Wildcats (32-4) won their eighth consecutive tournament game to advance to a regional semifinal matchup against St. Joseph’s, but the victory wasn’t secure until the final seconds.

Andre Woolridge, who scored 29 points in his final game for the eighth-seeded Hawkeyes, sank a 3-pointer with 49.2 seconds to play to cut No. 1 seed Kentucky’s lead to 72-69.

But sophomore Scott Padgett, who had a crucial 3-pointer that put Kentucky up by six with 3-1/2 minutes to play, scored on a short jumper with 28 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 74-69 lead that Iowa couldn’t overcome.

With All-American Ron Mercer in foul trouble and Anthony Epps misfiring, Padgett, Wayne Turner and Nazr Mohammed, all sophomores, took over.

Turner scored all 13 of his points in the second half, including a critical basket that put the Wildcats up 72-66 with 1:32 left after Iowa had missed three chances to narrow the gap.

The 6-foot-10, 240-pound Mohammed scored eight of his 10 after halftime, six of them on rebounds. He had 10 rebounds, six on offense.

Ryan Bowen scored 14 and Guy Rucker 10 for the Hawkeyes (22-10).

St. Joe’s 81, Boston Coll. 77 (OT)

Rashid Bey scored 10 of fourth-seeded St. Joseph’s 12 points in overtime as the long-shooting Hawks (26-6) rallied to defeat the No. 5 Eagles (23-9).

Bey’s 3-pointer with 52.5 seconds left in overtime gave St. Joseph’s a 75-71 lead and set a record for 3-pointers attempted by a tournament team with 43.

He then made four three throws in the final seconds, including two with 2 seconds left that gave the Hawks their final margin.

The Hawks, who made 14 of their 43 3-point attempts, used their long-range shooting to come from 13 points down in the second half.