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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 31, 1987)
Tuesday, March 31, 1987/The Battalion/Page 11 Sports re gular ec<)l 'is they' lhe "'wives,/] 7 ve h a ,| |' ()r 1,1 a dull, oosiers snare NCAA title on Smart play EW ORLEANS (AP) — Keith Smart, a junior college transfer, scored 17 of his 21 points in the sec ond half, including the game-winner |yitli five seconds left Monday night to give Indiana a 74-73 victory over • ^ Sjhacuse and earn Coach Bob Kmght his third national basketball title. HSmart also intercepted Derrick Coleman’s floor-length desperation pass as time ran out. ■Syracuse had a chance to win but Howard Triche missed the second of two f ree throws with 38 seconds left, ith i cleaning vani t 0 l *‘on u, d,/ / Syi--' 'S. w in ed a f et ‘led in theirji, years. in i:(,n »ignnmi expand his "ostalgicQ 0 | eman missed a 1-and-l I t | 2| seconds remaining. Itikeboxan lln between. Smart, a quick 6-foot- Iguard, grabbed the rebound of Triche’s miss and drove for a goal to cut the Orangemen’s lead to 73-72. He hit the game-winner from just in side the 3-point mark at the baseline as the Hoosiers finished the season with a 30-4 record. Knight joined the select company of UCLA’s John Wooden, with 10, and Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp, with four, as coaches who have won more than two NCAA crowns. Knight, who won titles in 1976 and 1981, saw the fulfillment of the recent adjust ments he made. Previously, he was reluctant to sign junior college trans fers and had been opposed to using zone defenses. But those changes helped Knight share the Big Ten title with Purdue this year and ultimately took him to New Orleans. Steve Alford, Indiana’s all-time leading scorer, added 23 points, hit ting seven of 10 from 3-point range. His only other goal was a layup. Forward Daryl Thomas added 20 points and Dean Garrett, another ju nior-college transfer, had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Syracuse, which shared the Big East title with Pittsburgh and Georgetown, got 20 points from point guard Sherman Douglas, 18 from center Rony Seikaly and 12 from guard Greg Monroe. Coleman, a 6-9 freshman, grabbed 19 rebounds, two short of the tournament record set by Bill ••ppcning^ says. “Well st hoppers a, I bey can i the’60s.” ’s dreams end at FT line oleman fails to hit key free throw NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It as 30 seconds to victory for In diana and a half-minute of bro- i , Mu;n dreams for Syracuse. TVGQrll T ra M n £ 73-72, Indiana called / wailMj me out w j t p 1 2q secon( j s to p| a y : jn the championship game ol the CAA basketball tournament, wo seconds after play resumed, errick Coleman, the 6-foot-9 Syracuse freshman, was fouled by Ceith Smart and went to the line io shoot 1-and-1. “There was no emotion,” Cole- tan said. “I just knew that if I tade the free throws, I’d put my | [earn ahead for good.” The free throw was short, and Smart hit a baseline jumper at the ther end with five seconds to play, giving Indiana the national title with a 74-73 victory. Coleman had stood alone at the free throw line. Rather than itring players along the foul lane, nvr mvm Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim spted to pull back on defense. “We didn’t want them to get a basket on the transition,” Boe- heim said. “We had the lead and *) - The mmiiteeon m proposals, •vide lor acrj !1S. I’armer, Dfj ed a pn nendmenu dear llieSo o-third mar then would i latevskk vott 1 by the ana > implement lendment mis.iK would. years in ■nnial sessami lumbered yen lion ol t*d to budget £• enue and erci bmitted bi Ito we weren’t worried about scor ing.” Coleman said the coach told the team he didn’t want anyone to foul trying to rebound a missed free throw, and so four Syracuse players were sent back to India na’s end of the floor. “We tried to call time out, all of us tried, but they didn't hear us. I don’t think they could hear us from all the noise. ” — Derrick Coleman “I felt confident at the line, but I knew when I released it that it was off to the right,” said Cole man, a 69 percent free-throw shooter who missed two of his four chances Monday night. “I wasn’t nervous at all. It was like any other free throw.” Syracuse tried to call a timeout after Smart’s go-ahead basket, but four seconds ticked off the clock, leaving only one second for a desperation attempt. Smart in tercepted the inbounds pass at halfcourt as the final buzzer sounded. Syracuse guard Greg Monroe said both he and senior teammate Howard Triche had tried to call the timeout immediately. “I saw three seconds left,” Monroe said. “I was near half court and Howard was right near the referee and they didn’t see it.” “We tried to call time out, all of us tried, but they didn’t hear us,” Coleman said. “I don’t think they could hear us from all the noise.” “It wasn’t the foul shot that lost the game,” Boeheim said. “It came down to the last shot and they happened to have it. We did everything we could to win. “No one has to walk off the court feeling bad,” Boeheim said. “There’s nothing I can say to make them feel better, but they gave it a great effort. “There’s only one team better, and that isn’t by much.” 1 .egislature session on n f.inuary Inidy'd sew the ibirdTw iment for an® i that lawmalr ual, ratherik s and these ould be ntf state's finWl nun \ stall Non lie elf etl QUALITY MERCHANDISE... LOW, LOW PRICES sjj it® oweerts Selected Caps 1/2 Price 20% Off Plus Much, Much More! c TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 5-12 PM (7 -0 c BOOKSTORES 340 JERSEY SOUTHGATE MM MM Spivey in Kentucky’s championship win over Kansas State in 1951. Indiana trailed most of the first half, but two straight 3-pointers by Alford put them in the locker room at halftime with a 34-33 lead. Indiana took a 41-37 lead in the second half, but Syracuse outscored the Hoosiers 15-3, with reserve Derek Brower contributing five points and Seikaly four points for a 52-44 lead. The Hoosiers bounced back with a 10-0 run as reserve Joe Hillman made two steals and Garrett blocked shots by Seikaly and Coleman. Smart’s jumper capped the run for a 54-52 Indiana lead. Syracuse came back with seven straight points, the last on Douglas’ 3-pointer. Indiana came back to tie it at 61 on a basket by Smart. After three more ties, Seikaly scored with 2:03 remaining. He was fouled on the play, but missed the free throw. Smart then tied it at 70 with a quick move to the basket with 1:20 left. Triche then made a goal with 56 seconds remaining for a 72-70 Syra cuse lead. Smart, from nearby Baton Rouge, then missed a shot, with Triche grabbing the rebound. But Smart came back to hit the final two baskets. As Coleman went to the free throw line with 28 seconds left after being fouled by Smart, no Syracuse players joined him along the lane. When he missed, Indiana had an easy rebound. Smart, named most valuable player, then took over. Syracuse, bidding for its first NCAA basketball title, finished the season 31-7. The Orangemen’s only other Final Four appearance was in 1975, and they finished fourth. Indiana won its fifth title overall, also winning in 1940 and 1953 un der Coach Branch McCracken. Syracuse, a poor free-throw shooting team with a 64 percent mark this season, made only 11 of 20 Monday night. Both teams shot 48 percent from the field, and Syracuse outrebounded the Hoosiers 38-35. Knight makes wise move in halftime talk with Smart NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Indiana Coach Bob Knight made a wise move when he collared Keith Smart for a strategy session at halftime of the NCAA basketball tournament championship game. “Coach Knight talked to me at halftime and told me I would have to get into the game — not just get into the game, but to hit the gaps and take thejumper,” Smart said. “I was only taking what was given to me,” said Smart, who scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half. The last two came on a baseline jumper with five seconds left that provided Indiana a 74-73 victory over Syra cuse for the school’s fifth national ti tle. It was a performance that earned Smart the most valuable player award. Just as Knight had before him, Smart came to realize that Syracuse was pressuring Indiana’s All-Ameri can guard, Steve Alford. So Smart got the ball instead, scoring 14 points in the last 9‘A minutes. Syracuse also tried to deny the middle to center Daryl Thomas, so Smart was consistently able to move inside during the final minutes. He made his game-winning basket from 16 feet. “The play was designed to go to Steve, but he was heavily covered,” said Smart, a junior-college transfer from nearby Baton Rouge. “Daryl did the smart thing, I guess, by dropping it back to me. “I don’t believe this,” Smart added. “I may sit down sometime next week and it’ll dawn on me.” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said the Orangemen did a solid job of containing Smart “most of the time, but he broke loose at the end.” Syracuse forward Howard Triche, who was guarding Smart on his game-winning shot, gave his oppo nent all the credit. “He came up with a pretty good shot and made an excellent play,” Triche said. Alford scored only one basket in the final 11:39, that coming on a fast-break layup with 4:05 to play. Smart, however, picked up the slack. “We had never panicked, not one time this year,” Smart said. “If Steve is covered, someone is going to step forward. Tonight, it was my turn. “It was a team effort the whole night,” he said. “That shot there, anyone on the team could have made that shot. I didn’t look at the clock,but I knew the time was run ning out.” Hoosier fans' celebration pure 'chaos' BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana University fans poured into the streets for a spontaneous celebration Monday night after the Hoosiers clinched the NCAA basketball championship with a one-point victory over Syracuse in New Or leans. “This is bedlam, chaos, com pletely frantic,” Matt Lucas, a cook at the popular student hang out, Bear’s Place, said after the 74-73 win. “It kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time,” said Ken Bonnigson of Clyde, Ohio, in town for a convention. “That’s the kind of game you hope you see once in a while.” Screams, fireworks and blaring horns could be heard across the southern Indiana campus and around the surrounding area. Students also ran through the Memorial Union on campus shouting IU slogans and cheering. 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