Max almost won his candy bar! Matt Soldano, here recapping the late afternoon action of the NCAA tournament. 16th seeded East Tennessee State almost upset number 1 seeded Pittsburgh which would have made Jordan Lauterbach's wallet a little lighter in weight. However, Pitt proved to obviously be the more talented team and made all the big plays at the end as they won 72-62. DeJuan Blair led all scorers with 27 points and 15 rebounds. Sam Young also recorded a double double for the Panthers with 14 points and 13 boards. ETSU struggled to score consistently near the end of the game and it showed as they shot just 30% for the game. However, it says something about your team, if you lose to arguably the best team in the country by 10 points and shoot just 30%. Or maybe it says something about Pitt?
11th seeded Dayton defeated 6th seeded West Virginia 68-60 in a game that really breaks my bracket (I had WVU in the Elite 8). The Mountaineers were crippled by Alex Ruoff in foul trouble and the inability to make 3's (they shot just 5-21). DaSean Butler scored just 12 points on 4-12 shooting. Truck Bryant led the Mountaineers with 21 points. The real star of the game was Chris Wright for Dayton as he scored 27 points and grabbed 9 rebounds.
6th seeded Arizona State beat 11th seeded Temple 66-57 to advance to play Syracuse. Talk about hype that did not come through, the Dionte Christmas vs. James Harden matchup was non-existant, and it wasn't Santa's fault. Christmas scored 29 points and was the only Owl who was an offensive threat. Harden shot just 1-8 from the floor and scored 9 points. If it was not for Jeff Pendergraph and Derek Glasser who each scored 22 points, the Sun Devils would be going home.
Finally, Missouri defeated the Big Red of Cornell 78-59 in what was a ball game after the first 20 minutes. The Tigers led by 4 at halftime but were led by Leo Lyons in the 2nd half who led the game with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Cornell was led by Randy Wittman who scored 18 for the game.
Check back after the 7 o clock games for Mike T's wonderful analysis (hopefully he does it) and then I'll be back for the late games and updated WCWP Pool Standings!!!!
-Matt Soldano
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