Wednesday Morning Shootaround: Big East Bubbles Burst

Monday, Notre Dame lost to Villanova to see their NCAA tournaments hopes vanish. Tuesday, it happened to Georgetown and Cincinnati.

Georgetown 59, St. John's 56: With 10:42 to play, Georgetown had a 45-30 lead and St. John's was in the midst of missing 14 consecutive field goals. But the Johnnies really locked down their defense, as the Hoyas made just one field goal the rest of the way. With 17 seconds left and Georgetown up 51-49, DaJuan Summers missed a jumper that could have iced the game. Rob Thomas, who led the Red Storm with a career-high 16 points, hit two free throws with 2.3 seconds left to force OT. In the OT, St. John's took the lead on two free throws with a minute left, and Justin Burrell capped it with a put back dunk with 10 seconds left. DaJuan Summers missed a tying three at the buzzer.

Justin Burrell sealed the Hoyas fate with this dunk.
(photo credit: Julie Jacobsen/AP)

So much for a disappointing season for the Hoyas. They are now 15-13, 6-11 in the Big East, and tied with St. John's for 11th in the league. This is the same team that beat UConn at UConn, beat Villanova in Philly, and beat Memphis. Go figure.

South Florida 70, Cincinnati 59: With Cincinnati up four with about eight minutes left to play, South Florida hit three's on back-to-back possessions to take a 52-50 lead that they would never relinquish. Three minutes later, Gus Gilchrist hit another three that capped a 13-2 run and game USF a 59-52 lead. Jones finished with 30 for the Bulls. This is a tough loss to swallow for the Bearcats, who probably would have earned a bid by knocking off USF and Seton Hall, and definitely would have been in had they won their first round Big East game.

The rest of the night's action:

• Duke 84, Florida State 81: Toney Douglas hit a three with 2:25 left on the clock to give FSU a 76-74 lead. But that is when Gerald Henderson took the game over. He hit a three from the corner on the next possession to give Duke the lead back, then drew a foul and knocked down two free throws with under a minute on the clock to stretch the lead to three. The next time down, Douglas missed a pretty good look at a three that would have tied the game, and Henderson took the board coast-to-coast, drawing a foul on Solomon Alabi and hitting the lay-up. Game. Douglas finished with 27 points for the 'Noles, while Henderson had 21, 10 boards, and 5 assists.
  
• Oklahoma State 77, Kansas State 71: Byron Eaton took a header into the scorer's table, coming up woozy, but returned to finish with 25 points as the Pokes really helped their tournament resume with a win against fellow bubble team Kansas State. K-State is in trouble now. They did not beat anyone in non-conference play (even losing to Iowa and Oregon) and now cannot finish better than 9-7 in the Big XII. OK State should be in, pending a solid performance against Oklahoma to close out the season.
• Wake Forest 65, Maryland 63: Wake Forest got down by 11 early in the first half, but was able to shut down Greivis Vazquez and dominated Maryland on the interior. The Demon Deacons finished with 10 blocked shots, 20 second chances points, and a 50-32 rebounding advantage. It also didn't help that the Terps were ice cold in the second half. If Dave Neal didn't hit three straight three's midway through, Maryland may have lost this one by 15. Vazquez finished with just 16 points on 7-24 shooting. Al-Farouq Aminu led WFU with 16 points and 14 boards, but Jeff Teague added this:
  
  
  
  
• Ohio State 60, Iowa 58: The Buckeyes got 22 points and 9 assists from Evan Turner as they improved to 9-8 in the Big Ten. OSU got lucky at the end, as a buzzer-beating three by the Hawkeyes rimmed out. Ohio State can probably punch a ticket with a win against Northwestern on Saturday.
• Michigan State 64, Indiana 59: Michigan State got 15 points and 5 dimes from Kalin Lucas as they managed to hold on despite scoring just 8 points in the last 9 minutes of the game. The biggest news? Tom Izzo promised students that if MSU won the outright league title, he would shave his head. They clinched tonight.
• Clemson 75, Virginia 57: The Tigers jumped all over the Cavs in the second half to pull out the win and move into a tie with FSU for fourth in the ACC. Terrence Oglesby led Clemson with 18 points.
  
• New Mexico 77, Utah 71: New Mexico did wonders for their tournament hopes as they got a career-high 29 points from Tony Dandridge and knocked off Utah to move into a three-way tie atop the MWC standings. Dandridge had 7 in the deciding 12-0 run midway through the second half which opened up a 60-47 lead.
• Syracuse 70, Rutgers 40: The Orange came out sluggish, scoring just 19 points in the first half, but exploded for 51 in the second half. They were sparked by three three's in the first three minutes from Andy Rautins. Paul Harris led the Orange with 18.
• Gonzaga 90, USC-Upstate 40
• Washington 87, Seattle 60
  

CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS

Player of the day: Lester Hudson, UT-Martin

Lester Hudson was nothing short of fantastic as he led the Skyhawks to a first round win in the OVC tournament over Tennessee Tech 93-75. Hudson filled the stat sheet as usual, going for 42 points (8-13 from deep), 9 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. UT-Martin will advance to face Morehead State on Friday in the semifinals.

Team of the day: Austin Peay

The #2 seed in the OVC managed to come back from 10 points down in the second half to beat Eastern Illinois 57-54. Marcel Williams hit a jumper with 2:25 left to give Austin Peay their first lead in the second half 53-52. With the game tied at 54, Kyle Duncan (who led the Governors with 16 points) hit two free throws for the 56-54 lead. After an EIU miss, Austin Peay hit a free throw with 3 seconds left for the final margin.

Big South (campus sites):
- #1 Radford 82, #8 High Point 58
- #2 VMI 96, #7 Coastal Carolina 76
- #3 Liberty 88, #6 Gardner-Webb 77
- #4 UNC-Asheville 76, #5 Winthrop 68

Horizon:
- #3 Cleveland State 56, #10 Detroit 43
- #7 UIC 73, #6 Youngstown State 68
- #4 Wright State 68, #9 Valparaiso 56
- #5 Milwaukee 77, #8 Loyola 68

Ohio Valley (campus sites):
- #4 Morehead State 91, #5 Eastern Kentucky 72
- #1 UT Martin 93, #8 Tennessee Tech 75
- #2 Austin Peay 57, #7 Eastern Illinois 54
- #3 Murray State 88, #6 Tennessee State 74