Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hilltoppers rally from 16 down
DAYTON, Ohio — So many things happened in the final five minutes Tuesday of Western Kentucky’s game against Mississippi Valley State that Hilltoppers Coach Ray Harper had trouble taking it all in.
“Wow,” he said. “I don’t know where to begin.”
How about with that finish?
The only team with a losing record in the NCAA Tournament got it started with a comeback — in front of a presidential audience, no less. T.J. Price’s three-point play with 33 seconds to go completed the Hilltoppers’ rally from a 16-point deficit for a 59-58 victory over Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday night.
President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron had front-row seats to see the tournament open with a ragged game that had an engrossing ending.
“It’s a crazy feeling,” said Derrick Gordon, who had 11 points. “That’s the president of the United States coming to watch our game. We wanted to put on a show. Things didn’t work our way for the first 35 minutes, but we came away with the W.
“I’m sure he liked what he saw.”
He saw the tournament’s longest shot somehow pull out another one.
The Hilltoppers (16-18) are the only squad in the 68-team field with a losing record. They played like it for most of the game, shooting only 30 percent and turning the ball over 28 times.
Western Kentucky moves on to play Kentucky — the top seed in the South Regional — on Thursday in Louisville, Ky., an all-bluegrass game for the second round.
Mississippi Valley State (21-13) caught the president’s eye while pulling ahead, but couldn’t close it out. Kevin Burwell scored 20 points and locked eyes with the president after making a three-pointer while the Delta Devils built their big lead. Obama smiled back.
“Like I said yesterday, we were just trying to put on a show for him,” Burwell said. “In the heat of the moment, I just pointed at him a couple of times. That was it.”
Until the final five minutes.
“This is something new for us,” Gordon said. “The lights are on. We were rushing. With five minutes left to go, we all turned that switch on. We decided we were not ready to go home.”
“You could see that look in their eyes: ‘We’re going to do this,’ ” Harper said.
With a victory only minutes away, the Delta Devils
came apart against a fullcourt press, repeatedly losing the ball as they tried to rush down the court.
“I thought it was just our guys got rattled, got excited, and got a little bit beside themselves,” Mississippi Valley State Coach Sean Woods said. “Normally in a situation like that, maybe it’s one guy or two. But when it’s all five, it was like a snowball effect.”
Burwell had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds, shooting another three in front of Obama. It missed and Cor-j Cox had a putback at the buzzer that left the Delta Devils a point short.
BYU 78, IONA 72
DAYTON, Ohio — Noah Hartsock scored 16 of his 23 points in the second half to fuel Brigham Young’s comeback from a 25-point deficit, leading the Cougars past Iona in the first round.
Brandon Davies added 18 points and Damarcus Harrison 12 for the Cougars (26-8), who advance to play third-seeded Marquette on Thursday in Louisville, Ky.
Iona (25-8) seemed assured of its first official NCAA Tournament victory after dominating the first half. But despite 15 points and 10 assists by Scott Machado, the Gaels dropped to 0-8 in NCAA play. Their lone victory in 1980 was vacated because of NCAA violations.
Iona came in as the nation’s top-scoring team at 83.2 points per game and didn’t disappoint — at least in the opening 16 minutes. The Gaels scored 55 points, then they didn’t score over the final 4:30 of the first half.
Machado, averaging just under 10 assists a game, had nine at the break.
BYU then took control. The Cougars held the Gaels without a point for 9:20 in an 17-0 run to narrow the deficit to 6261 midway through the second half.
From there, the teams traded baskets as the pace slowed. Machado’s threepoint play pushed the lead to 70-64 with five minutes remaining before Hartsock hit an outside shot. After two missed free throws by the Gaels, he hit another short turnaround jumper to cut the lead to two.
With 2:26 left, Hartsock popped out on the right wing to hit a go- ahead three. It was the Cougars’ first lead of the game.
Davies added two free throws in the final minute before Brock Zylstra nailed a three-pointer, and the comeback was complete.