SEC Tourney Day 1: Alabama downs Vandy to meet Vols
The Associated PressOriginally published: March 13. 2009 3:01AM
Last modified: March 13. 2009 12:04AM
First round: Crimson Tide 82, Commodores 75
TAMPA, Fla. — Alonzo Gee scored 25 points and Alabama went 12-for-12 from the foul line in the final 1:03 to hold off Vanderbilt 82-75 Thursday night in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Mikhail Torrance made all eight of his free throws and finished with 20 points as the Crimson Tide (18-13) continued a strong late-season surge and advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals against SEC East co-champion Tennessee.
Gee bounced back from a poor shooting night in Alabama’s 70-67 victory over Tennessee in the regular-season finale to go 9-for-12 from the field and 7-for-8 from the foul line. The Crimson Tide built a 16-point lead, but Brad Tinsley and Jeffery Taylor led a late surge that helped Vanderbilt (19-12) trim its deficit to five in the final minute.
Tinsley led Vanderbilt with 20 points and Taylor had 17 for the Commodores. Leading scorer A.J. Ogilvy was held without a field goal until the final minute and finished with eight points.
Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings felt his team entered the tournament playing its best basketball of the season. The Commodores won three straight down the stretch, including a 13-point win over South Carolina at home and an eight-point road win over conference regular-season champion LSU.
Alabama rebounded from a tough stretch following the resignation of former coach Mark Gottfried to win four of five games heading into a rematch of the Feb. 5 meeting won by Vanderbilt 79-74 in Nashville.
Gee scored 11 points and Alabama led by as many as 12 before George Drake keyed an 11-1 burst that trimmed Vanderbilt’s deficit to 30-28. Alabama led 36-30 at the half, and the Commodores had to feel fortunate to be that close, considering Ogilvy was 0-for-2 from the field and had two points.
Things didn’t get any easier after the break for the 6-foot-11 sophomore from Sydney, Australia. The only shot Ogilvy took in the first nine minutes of the second half was blocked, and he was 0-for-4 before he finally made a layup for his first field goal with 55.9 seconds to go.
The basket pulled Vanderbilt to within 70-63, but Alabama retained its poise. Even more importantly, the Crimson Tide continued to make free throws. Torrance and Anthony Brock went to the line and calmly converted — Torrance was 8-for-8 and Brock 4-for-4 — to close out the game.
Ogilvy finished 2-for-7 and had eight rebounds and six assists. The team’s second-leading scorer, Jermaine Beal, had a tough night offensively, too, scoring five points on 2-for-11 shooting.
Tinsley, Taylor and Drake, who scored 14, took up the slack. The trio combined for eight of Vanderbilt’s 10 3-pointers.
First round: Mississippi St. 79, Georgia 60
TAMPA, Fla. — Kodi Augustus scored a career-high 19 points, Jarvis Varnado added 14 points and 12 rebounds and Mississippi State beat Georgia 79-60 Thursday in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Augustus, a backup averaging 5.4 points a game, was 6 of 9 from the field and 3 of 4 from 3-point range — a surprising hot streak for a guy who came into the tournament shooting just 22 percent (4 of 18) from behind the arc this season.
He helped MSU (20-12) advance to play South Carolina on Friday. Coach Rick Stansbury’s team also kept alive its chances of making the NCAA tournament.
Georgia (12-20) had hoped for another run through the tournament. The Bulldogs stunned everyone by winning four games in three days in Atlanta last year and claimed an automatic NCAA bid.
Terrance Woodbury led Georgia with 14 points and seven rebounds.
MSU, which leads the league in 3-pointers made, used some key ones to open up a huge lead in the first half and then pull away after the break.
MSU used a 16-2 run midway through the opening half to turn a tight game into double-digit lead.
Augustus got it started with consecutive 3-pointers, Varnado made a couple of shots in the paint and Riley Benock hit a jumper that made MSU look much more like the team that started 6-2 in conference play rather than the one that lost five of its next six.
Ravern Johnson sank a free throw, then prompted a timeout with his third 3-pointer of the half with 5:51 left. MSU was up 30-17 at that point and extended the lead to 14 with Brian Johnson’s rebound and dunk just before the buzzer.
Georgia sliced into the 40-26 halftime lead by outscoring MSU 13-5 to open the second half, but MSU pulled away with more 3s. Barry Stewart and Augustus made back-to-back shots from behind the arc, then Stewart added another one a few seconds later that made it 60-44 with 12:13 to play.
MSU finished 9 of 24 from 3-point range.
Georgia wilted down the stretch, no surprise for a team that’s spent much of this season in turmoil. Coach Dennis Felton was fired in late January after Georgia started 0-5 in league play. Interim coach Pete Herrmann took over, but the losses kept mounting.
Georgia won three of its final six heading into the tournament, giving players confidence they might be able to pull off another improbable run to the NCAA tournament.
MSU didn’t let it happen.
Ravern Johnson, the team’s top 3-point threat, had a quiet game. He was 3 of 10 from behind the arc and finished with 12 points. No worries, though, Augustus picked up the slack.
First round: Kentucky 71, Mississippi 58
TAMPA, Fla. — With chants of “Go Big Blue” reverberating through a less than full arena, Kentucky pulled off an important win in the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Three more and an impressive streak of consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament will remain alive.
“You have to be confident in that perspective, but we’re just taking it one game at a time,” SEC scoring leader Jodie Meeks said after a 25-point performance helped the Wildcats beat Mississippi 71-58 on Thursday.
“The only thing we worried about today was Ole Miss. We took care of business, and out next opponent is LSU,” Meeks added. “It’s all we’re worried about.”
The opening-round victory, which stopped a four-game losing streak, sends the Wildcats (20-12) into Friday’s quarterfinals against SEC regular-season champion LSU (25-6), which at No. 20 is the league’s only ranked team.
“It was a great win for us,” Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie said. “We’ve been reeling for a while.”
Patrick Patterson had 15 points and 14 rebounds, and the Wildcats kept alive their hopes of extending their streak of consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament to 18.
“It felt like it was the first game of the season pretty much. ... We felt that there was no pressure on us anymore. The only thing we’ve got to do is come out and play the basketball we know how to play and know that we can play,” Patterson said.
“We wanted to be tough, we wanted to be strong — give it our all because it could possibly be our last game.”
Mississippi (16-15) was outscored 35-20 in the second half, when Meeks had 15 points and Kentucky shot 54 percent from the field (14 of 26) and played stifling defense that forced the flustered Rebels into 11 turnovers after the break.
Terrico White led Mississippi with 21 points, but only had six after halftime. David Huertas came off the bench to score 15 after not starting because of a bone bruise in his left foot.
“If we can come out with the right approach to start the second half, we can typically be in the game ’til the end,” Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy said. “I thought we had a couple of key mistakes early, which allowed Kentucky to pull away.”
After losing four straight games to close the regular season, Kentucky likely needs to win its 26th conference tournament title this weekend to avoid missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1991.
Mississippi, which beat the Wildcats 85-80 at home on Jan. 27, has never beaten Kentucky twice in the same season. The Rebels were hoping a win or two in the conference tourney would enhance their chances of receiving a spot in the NIT.
Meeks made 9 of 15 shots and was 6-for-7 from the foul line after struggling against Mississippi in the earlier meeting. Patterson was dominant inside, and the Wildcats also got increased production out of its supporting cast.
Perry Stevenson had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Darius Miller scored 12 off the bench and had two of Kentucky’s 10 blocked shots.
“Patrick Patterson was a man amongst boys inside with his ability to dominate on both ends,” Kennedy said.
“Kentucky played extremely well. They played really hard. And again, for us, our margin of error is such that when we turn the ball over as readily as we did and don’t capitalize on our opportunities, it tends to lead to a long night.”
Mississippi led 38-36 at the half, however, an inability to take care of the basketball and keep White involved in the offense eventually took its toll. The SEC freshman of the year finished 7-for-13 after making five of his first seven shots and helping the Rebels answer every time Kentucky threatened to take control early.
But beyond Huertas, Mississippi’s leading scorer with an 18.2 average, White didn’t get help offensively from the rest of his teammates — none of whom had more than six points.
The Rebels shot 32 percent from the field in the second half (7 of 22) and 43.8 percent (21 of 48) for the game.
“I think it’s the same Kentucky we played before,” Ole Miss guard Zach Graham said. “I just think our turnovers and their rebounding the ball really were keys and factored in them winning.”
First Round: Florida 73, Arkansas 58
TAMPA, Fla. — Walter Hodge scored 16 points, Dan Werner added 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Florida beat Arkansas 73-58 on Thursday night in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Nick Calathes finished with 11 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Gators, who defeated Arkansas for the fifth time in the last six meetings — and like many teams in the league — improved their chances of making the NCAA tournament.
Kentucky, Mississippi State, Alabama and the Gators advanced to the second round, all probably needing at least another victory to get consideration from the NCAA selection committee.
Florida will now face Auburn in a game many believe will amount to a play-in game for the NCAA tournament.
The Gators (23-9) might need to play better than they did against the Razorbacks (14-16) to upset the Tigers.
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