Oregon gave once-beaten Stanford all it could handle for nearly 38 minutes. Then Matt Lottich came up with a game-turning defensive play. Lottich blocked a shot that could have given the Ducks the lead, triggering a 9-2 game-ending run that gave the Cardinal a 70-63 victory in the Pac-10 tournament semifinals Friday night.
"We had to come out with massive energy," said Andre Joseph, who led the Ducks with 16 points. "We did that for the first 37 minutes and kind of broke down for the last three minutes."
PHOTO: AP
The Cardinal (28-1) will play second-seeded Washington in today's championship game. The winner earns an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, where No. 2 Stanford could get a top seed in its 10th consecutive appearance.
Josh Childress scored 18 points and contributed to Stanford's smothering defense on Ducks star Luke Jackson, who was held to 12 points -- 9 1/2 below his average.
"They just kind of challenge the guards and make the big guys beat them," Jackson said. "Every time we'd drive in, they had guys collapsing on us."
The fifth-seeded Ducks (15-12) have lost five of their last eight games and are likely headed to the NIT a year after winning the Pac-10 tourney title.
"Hopefully we'll get an NIT bid and continue to play," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said.
Washington 90, Arizona 85
Washington did something to Arizona this season that nobody had in 65 years -- beat the Wildcats three times. In doing so, the Huskies probably locked up a berth in the NCAA tournament.
Nate Robinson scored 11 of his 20 points in the final 6:10 Friday night to lead second-seeded Washington past the third-seeded Wildcats 90-85 in the Pac-10 tournament semifinals.
"Obviously they're a better ballclub than we are -- we're 0-3 against them," Wildcats coach Lute Olson said. "Defensively, it seems like there are six guys out there. When they got shots, they knocked them down."
The Huskies shot 32-of-65 (49.2 percent) including 12-of-25 from 3-point range and outrebounded the Wildcats 40-31.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, shot 30-of-64 (46.9 percent) including an uncharacteristic 1-for-6 from beyond the arc.
"Playing a game against Arizona is just like practice -- we just run up and down the floor with them," Washington's Brandon Roy said. "We came out ahead three times."
The Huskies face top-seeded Stanford in today's championship game at Staples Center, with the winner receiving an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
Washington (19-10), which has won 14 of its last 16 games, handed No. 2 Stanford its only loss of the season, beating the Cardinal 75-62 in Seattle last Saturday.
BIG TEN
Minnesota 63, Purdue 52
Minnesota coach Dan Monson said his Gophers got pushed around in their two losses to Purdue this season.
At their coach's begging, the Gophers played the part of the bully in the first round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday. Kris Humphries overcame poor shooting with 20 points and 15 rebounds, leading Minnesota to a 63-52 victory over Purdue.
"The first two times we played them, we got backed down physically," Monson said. "That's how they beat people."
Minnesota (12-17) shot 28 percent from the field, but were the aggressors from the start, leading to a big advantage at the free throw line. That allowed the Gophers to advance to the next round against No. 10 Wisconsin on Friday.
Humphries again struggled from the floor against the Boilermakers (17-13). Purdue forward Brett Buscher blocked four of his shots and forced the Big Ten freshman of the year into 4-for-21 shooting. It was nothing new for Purdue, which held Humphries to a combined 10-for-31 in its two wins over the Gophers in the regular season.
This time, however, Humphries was able to overcome it by hitting 11-of-13 free throws. He took the ball right at the Boilermakers, not backing down against the physical Purdue front.
The Gophers were 22-for-25 from the foul line while Purdue was just 5-for-10.
Indiana 83, Ohio State 69
All Ryan Tapak and Mark Johnson wanted was a chance to play. Indiana coach Mike Davis reluctantly gave them that opportunity Thursday and then watched what appeared to be a different team.
Tapak scored six points and dished out a career-high 11 assists, Johnson scored a career-high 13 points and the mistakes that had plagued Indiana throughout the second half of the Big Ten season vanished in an 83-69 victory over Ohio State in the first round of the conference tournament.
"For the last two weeks, I've reallyt to go with the guys on scholarship," Davis said. "I made up my mind that if we were going to lose today, I was going to give these guys a chance."
Good move. Johnson and Tapak -- both walk-ons three years ago -- ran the offense efficiently and perfectly. Tapak continually got the ball inside to A.J. Moye, who had 19 points and eight rebounds. Then he helped set up the outside game for Bracey Wright, who ended a shooting slump with 20 points and became the 39th Indiana player with at least 1,000 career points.
And when Wright or Moye weren't doing the damage, Johnson was. After playing just 10 minutes in the Hoosiers' first 27 games, Johnson played 20 productive minutes Thursday, hitting three 3-pointers and all four free throws.
Ohio State had no answers. Terence Dials led the ninth-seeded Buckeyes with 22 points and nine rebounds, while J.J. Sullinger had 18 points, but it wasn't enough to avoid their second straight loss.
Ohio State (14-16) will miss the postseason for the first time in six years.
Northwestern 57, Penn State 52
Penn State coach Ed DeChellis looked at the halftime box score in disbelief. He saw the turnover-a-minute ratio and that Northwestern had already broken the Big Ten tournament's single-game record with 17 steals and figured things couldn't get any worse. They did.
Vedran Vukusic scored 16 points, Jitim Young added 14 points and Northwestern took advantage of 26 Penn State turnovers to pull away for a 57-50 first-round victory Thursday.
"I said we can't possibly throw it away any more than we have," DeChellis said.
The Nittany Lions (9-19) did handle the ball better in the second half, but it still wasn't enough to prevent an 11th straight loss in a game that certainly won't be remembered for its aesthetics.
The teams combined to hit 9-of-42 from 3-point range. Penn State finished with 26 turnovers, while Northwestern had 22 steals -- seven more than the record Penn State set during the 2000 tournament against Illinois. Had it not been for Aaron Johnson and Marlon Smith, the game could have been even uglier for Penn State. Johnson and Smith each had 14 points and Johnson had 13 rebounds.
BIG EAST
Connecticut and Pittsburgh will decide the Big East tournament championship and settle an old score.
The Huskies and Panthers will play in the title game Saturday night for the third straight year and each won one of the first two.
"It's a big rivalry. We really hate those guys. That's all we do is play each other," Connecticut guard Taliek Brown said after the second-seeded and ninth-ranked Huskies beat Villanova 84-67 Friday night in the semifinals.
Sixth-ranked Pittsburgh (29-3), the top seed, beat Boston College 62-53 in the other semifinal to set up the tie-breaking rematch.
"We like to run and they play physical, it's a real battle," Brown said. "We beat them. They beat us. This is for the real championship."
Ben Gordon scored 29 points and Connecticut (26-6) won again without Emeka Okafor.
The loss ends Villanova's surprise run in the tournament.
The No. 6 Panthers (29-3) will play No. 9 Connecticut for the championship tonight.
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