Wolfpack keep dancin’

WORCESTER, Mass. – Julius Hodge looked up and saw Rudy Gay smiling with the game on the line. There was no way Hodge would let the Connecticut freshman stand there smirking as the final seconds ticked away.

So the flashy North Carolina State senior made his move. He darted past Gay – leaving him sprawled on the floor – and scored on a slashing drive with 4.3 seconds left to break a 62-all tie and send the Wolfpack past the defending national champions 65-62 Sunday in Worcester, Mass., in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

“He started clapping his hands and smiling,” said Hodge, who finished with 17 points and six assists. “I just felt like there was no way I was going to be denied.”

Hodge was fouled on the play by Ed Nelson and completed the three-point play. The Wolfpack survived after Marcus Williams missed a desperation 3-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer.

North Carolina State (21-13), the 10th seed, advances to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1989 and will play sixth-seeded Wisconsin in the next round.

No team has repeated since Duke in 1991-92, but the second-seeded Huskies (23-8) seemed almost a lock to at least move past the second round. They went into the game 27-0 against teams seeded sixth or lower in the tournament. And in 19 years under coach Jim Calhoun, they were 23-2 in the first two rounds of the tournament, reaching the regional semifinals 13 times.

But UConn was plagued by a series of injuries and illnesses. Two backup point guards were lost this season, and outside ace Rashad Anderson returned to the lineup last week after battling a life-threatening illness brought on by complications from a skin infection.

The Huskies just wilted at the end.

“We ran out of bullets and energy. We had no more bullets,” Calhoun said. “For one of the few times in my coaching career, we ran out of gas, and North Carolina State was able to take advantage of that. You need bullets to win games, guys that can make plays, that are healthy enough to.”

The loss also was a setback for the Big East conference, which has lost four teams so far, including a No. 2 seed and two No. 4 seeds.

“No one believed it could happen,” Hodge said in the locker room, ice bags covering both knees. “It feels that much better because no one believed.”

Villanova 76, Florida 65: Basket by basket, rebound by rebound, Villanova’s Jason Fraser stirred memories of 20 years ago.

The fifth-seeded Wildcats (24-7) in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999, got a huge performance from their 6-foot-10 backup center and humbled Florida in Nashville, Tenn., in the second round.

With leading scorer Allan Ray struggling and another of Villanova’s top players sitting out much of the game with an injury, Fraser and guard Randy Foye literally took the team on their backs and led the Wildcats into the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1988 – where they will face North Carolina.

Twenty years ago, Villanova made an improbable run to their only national title.

Fraser scored 21 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Foye had 18 points to help pick up the slack for Ray and Curtis Sumpter, who left the game after scoring eight early points and twice tumbling to the court and clutching his sore knees.

The Gators (24-8) were held to 38.5 shooting and got little offensive support for David Lee, who did his best to keep them in the game with 20 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and three steals before fouling out.

Wisconsin 71, Bucknell 62: Maybe Bucknell could’ve found a scheme to stop Wisconsin’s Mike Wilkinson or Zach Morley. Handling both, however, was too much for the upstart Bison.

The 6-foot-8 forwards consistently put themselves in all the right places, especially when things were tight in the second half, carrying the sixth-seeded Badgers (24-8) to a victory over the 14th-seeded Bison in Oklahoma City in a second-round game.

Morley, who was shut out in 28 minutes of a first-round win over Northern Iowa, was 6 of 7 from the floor with three 3-pointers and 15 points. His tap-in with 8:41 left put the Badgers ahead for good, then he protected the lead with rebounds on the next two defensive stands. He finished with eight boards.

The Bison were still within four points when Wilkinson showed why he’s won more games than any player in school history. He personally went on a 7-2 run, capped by a three-point play to push the lead back to nine, virtually ending Bucknell’s bid to become just the third No. 14 to reach the NCAA’s Sweet 16. He finished with 23 points and nine rebounds.

North Carolina 92, Iowa State 65: Sean May had 24 points and 17 rebounds, Marvin Williams finished with a career-high 15 rebounds and the top-seeded Tar Heels (29-4) beat the Cyclones (19-12) in Charlotte, N.C., to advance past the first weekend for the first time in five seasons.

Williams scored 20 points – tying his season high for the second consecutive game – and Rashad McCants added 17 for North Carolina (29-4), which went to the Final Four in 2000 before the tournament drought. Now, coach Roy Williams has the Tar Heels back in the regional semifinals in his second season, the 10th time he’s made it that far in 17 NCAA tournament appearances.