Bruins Get By 1st-Round Hurricane

South Regional

Tradition is nice. Clutch free throws are better.

Seniors J.R. Henderson and Toby Bailey hit four straight from the line in the final 25.2 seconds Friday night to help No. 6 seed UCLA defeat Miami 65-62 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Atlanta.

“When it gets to the clutch time of the game, we kind of dig deep and fall back on our experience,” Bailey said. “We’ve had so many close games, so many big games.

We don’t get rattled at the end, we just play solid.”

Henderson was 2 for 7 from the line before his last shots, but rattled both in for a 63-62 lead with 25.2 seconds remaining.

After Miami’s Johnny Hemsley missed a 3-pointer with 8 seconds left, Bailey got the rebound and hit his two free throws.

Following a timeout, Charles Wiseman missed a 3-pointer for Miami. It ended the upset hopes for the 11th-seeded Hurricanes (18-10), making their first NCAA appearance in 38 years.

Henderson finished with 26 points and Bailey had 21 for UCLA (23-8), which nearly lost in the first round for the second time in three years since winning the 1995 national championship.

UCLA will play Michigan on Sunday.

Michigan 80, Davidson 61

The Wolverines won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in three tries since 1994, getting 20 points from Louis Bullock in the opening round in Lexington, Ky.

Third-seeded Michigan (25-8) raced to a double-figure lead in the first 5 minutes and Davidson (20-10) never got closer than nine.

Kentucky 82, So. Carolina St. 67

Pounding the ball inside against an overmatched team, the second-seeded Wildcats (30-4) wore down the No. 15 seed Bulldogs (22-8) in a first-round game in Atlanta.

The Wildcats, who will play Saint Louis on Sunday, didn’t bother to set up very much outside the 3-point arc, hitting only 4 of 14 from that range. They preferred to work closer to the basket, a strategy that paid off abundantly when Kentucky’s big men outscored their counterparts from South Carolina State 57-8.

Saint Louis 51, UMass 46

Saint Louis guard Larry Hughes, touted as one of the country’s best freshmen, scored his team’s final nine points to lead the 10th-seeded Billikens (22-10) over the No. 7 seed Minutemen (21-11) in a first-round game in Atlanta.

Dogged consistently by the UMass defense, Hughes finished with 18 points on 6-for-17 shooting.

Hughes hit a 3-pointer with 4:50 left to give the Billikens a 45-44 lead. On the next possession, he converted a 3-on-1 fast break with a dunk.

After a UMass basket, he hit back-to-back shots, both difficult spinners, to give Saint Louis a 51-46 lead.

Meanwhile, the Minutemen missed their final seven shots.

Duke 99, Radford 63

Duke’s man-to-man defense smothered Radford and Roshown McLeod led a balanced offense that helped the Blue Devils coast to victory in a first-round game in Lexington.

Duke (30-3), the top seed in the South Regional, will play eighthseeded Oklahoma State on Sunday.

Duke had five players in double figures, led by McLeod’s 23 points. Leslie Ballard had 16 for Radford.

Okla. St. 74, Geo. Washington 59

Adrian Peterson scored six points during a 10-0 run that turned back a George Washington rally and carried the Cowboys (22-6) past the Colonials (24-9) in Lexington.

Eighth-seeded Oklahoma State improved its record to 14-1 in tourney openers.

Syracuse 63, Iona 61

It wasn’t as dramatic as the shot by Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew, but Marius Janulis hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1.2 seconds left, lifting the fifth-seeded Orangemen (25-8) past the No. 12 seed Gaels (27-6) in a first-round game in Lexington.

With 24.2 seconds to go, Iona’s John McDonald hit a 3-pointer for a 61-60 lead. After a Syracuse timeout, the Orangemen worked the ball to Todd Burgan, who drove down the lane, but his shot was blocked by Kashif Hameed.

Burgan got his own rebound, and quickly passed it to a wide-open Janulis, who drilled his second 3-pointer in the final minute.

New Mexico 79, Butler 62

Ben Baum made three 3-pointers - the best shooting performance of the 245-pound center’s career - to help the fourth-seeded Lobos (24-7) defeat the No. 13-seed Bulldogs (22-11) in a first-round game in Lexington.

New Mexico will play Syracuse in the second round Sunday.

Butler has not won an NCAA Tournament game in 36 years.