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NCAA Tournament Recap (Purdue-Miami Fla)
Posted: Sun March 14, 1999 at 8:46 p.m. EST BOSTON (Ticker) -- Brian Cardinal closed a 15-0 first-half run with a pair of 3-pointers as 10th-seeded Purdue thumped Miami, 73-63, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, throwing the East Region into further chaos. Cardinal scored 20 points and Greg McQuay added 14 for the Boilermakers (21-12), who are in the regional semifinals for the second straight year and third time this decade. Purdue held Miami scoreless the final 7:22 of the first half and led 32-17 at intermission. The win left Purdue, Temple and Southwest Missouri State as the three teams with the chance to slow down top seed and overwhelming favorite Duke in the regional at East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Boilermakers will meet sixth-seeded Temple in the round of 16 Friday. "This ranks as one of my best (wins) ever because of what this team has been through and where we were a month ago," Boilermakers coach Gene Keady said. "I've had better teams rated than this. I couldn't be prouder of the players." Purdue literally stumbled into the NCAA Tournament, having lost five of its last six games, including a first-round defeat in the Big Ten tournament. Tim James scored 19 points and Mario Bland added 14 and 11 rebounds for the Hurricanes (23-7), who were unable to build off the momentum of their first NCAA Tournament victory Friday. Miami shot just 33 percent (25-of-76) from the field, including 1-of-14 from 3-point range. "They did a pretty good defensive job. We couldn't really finish our plays for some reason," James said. "And tonight, out of all nights, was the night we were supposed to come out and make some easy baskets. It's no one's fault. We just didn't do it." The Hurricanes pulled even for the last time at 17-17 on a lay-in by James with 7:23 to go in the first half. But the Boilermakers stiffened defensively, led by Alan Eldridge's containment of Johnny Hemsley, who hit nine 3-pointers in Miami's first-round win over Lafayette. Hemsley was 5-of-13 from the field and had only 13 points. Cornell had a lay-in before Eldridge added a jumper and 3-pointer in a 37-second span as the Boilermakers took a 24-17 lead with 4:04 to go. Rodney Smith added two free throws before Cardinal drilled a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 29-17 at the 2:44 mark. Neither team scored again until Caridnal hit another long-range shot with less than three seconds left. "Alan did such a great job on Hemsley, shutting him down," Keady said. "After watching him (Hemsley) play the other night, he scared us to death. "We took care of the defensive end of things, made the free throws when we needed to, had a couple of spurts in each half and probably won the game when we had eight or nine shutouts of their possessions in a row." The Hurricanes, who grabbed 13 offensive rebounds in the first half, made just 6-of-33 shots (18 percent) in the opening 20 minutes. Purdue's last basket came with 7:40 to play on a dunk by McQuay that made it 54-40. But the Boilermakers were able to maintain the lead at the foul line, where they hit 19-of-27 attempts down the stretch. Miami held a commanding 45-29 edge on the boards, including a whopping 27-3 advantage on the offensive end, but totaled only 16 second-chance points. The Hurricanes also committed 18 turnovers that led to 20 points for the Boilers. "We wanted to get the ball inside," Hurricanes coach Leonard Hamilton said. "To my surprise, we had 13 offensive rebounds in the first half and shot 18 percent. I've never been a game where a team got 27 offensive rebounds and couldn't put any of them back. An unusual phenom I've never experienced." Eldridge netted 12 points and Mike Robinson had 10 off the bench for Purdue, which shot 58 percent (22-of-38) from the floor and sank 24-of-37 free throws.© 2000 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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