Official’s Call Upsets Michigan State : Johnson Says Tip-In Should Have Counted; It Doesn’t, and Spartans Lose

Michigan State’s Ken Johnson thinks he should have scored two more points Friday -- and he’s not being selfish.

Johnson just believes his extra basket would have made things interesting and possibly reversed the Spartans’ 70-68 loss to Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of the NCAA Midwest Regionals at Houston. In the second game, Memphis State defeated Pennsylvania, 67-55.

After trailing Alabama-Birmingham by nine points, Michigan State had a chance to pull to within one with seven seconds left when Sam Vincent put up a shot. The ball came out, and Johnson tapped it through, but offical John Clougherty called goaltending, disallowing the basket.

“I thought it was a legitimate tip,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to criticize the officiating, but that was a big call to miss. It was a crucial time and a crucial game in the NCAA tournament.

“I didn’t think he’d make a call like that in that situation. I didn’t extend myself high enough to be illegal.”

Instead, Alabama-Birmingham’s Jerome Mincy hit one free throw moments later to seal the upset. The Blazers will meet Memphis State in the second round Sunday.

“I’m not saying the officials beat us, but that guy was brutal,” said Michigan State Coach Jud Heathcote, referring to Clougherty. “I don’t even know his name, and I don’t want to.”

Mincy and Steve Mitchell each scored 18 points to overcome the Spartans and a 32-point performance by Sam Vincent.

“In the second half, I feel we played as well as we can play,” Blazers Coach Gene Bartow said. “We were outrebounded badly in the first half, but we played the boards extremely well in the second half. I think that was the key to the game.”

The Blazers, 25-8, were outrebounded 19-6 in the first half but came back in the second half, beating the Spartans, 23-16, on the boards.

In the Southeast Regional at Dayton, Ohio, Navy stunned Louisiana State, 78-55, and Maryland defeated Miami (Ohio), 69-68, in overtime. In the East Regional at Atlanta, Illinois defeated Northeastern, 76-57, and Georgia beat Wichita State 67-59. In the West Regional in Albuquerque, N.M., North Carolina State defeated Nevada Reno, 65-56, and Texas El Paso upended Tulsa, 79-75.

The matchups later Friday had Syracuse vs. DePaul and Georgia Tech vs. Mercer in the East; Michigan vs. Fairleigh Dickinson and Villanova vs. Dayton in the Southeast; Texas Tech vs. Boston College and Duke vs. Pepperdine in the Midwest, and Virginia Commonwealth vs. Marshall and Alabama vs. Arizona in the West.

A look at those games:

SOUTHEAST: Jeff Adkins tipped in a rebound with 14 seconds left in overtime as Maryland survived a Miami rally. Adkins’ winning shot came after a missed shot by Adrian Branch. The Terrapins, 24-11, were led by Len Bias with 25 points. Branch had 24 points.

Ron Harper had 26 points for Miami, 20-11, of the Mid-American Conference.

Maryland led by as many as 11 points in the second half before Harper and Eric Newsome sparked a Miami comeback that ended in a 59-59 tie in regulation time. Miami led by three points twice in overtime.

EAST: Ken Norman scored 23 points, and the Illini put the defensive clamps on Northeastern. Illinois, 25-8, led by 12 points at halftime and stretched that advantage to as many as 29 in the second half.

The loss snapped a 12-game winning streak for Northeastern, Illinois led 39-25 early in the second half before Northeastern closed the gap to eight with six straight points. But Illinois scored the next eight points and led comfortably the rest of the way.

Reggie Lewis scored 22 points for Northeastern, 22-9. Illinois plays Georgia in the second round Sunday.

Georgia went on a 16-2 run, with Cedric Henderson and Joe Ward scoring six points apiece, to take a 47-33 lead that put Wichita State away with 10:08 to play. The teams were tied 31-31 when Henderson started the six-minute burst.

Georgia, 22-8, got 20 points from Henderson, and All-American Xavier McDaniel had 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead Wichita State, 18-13.

MIDWEST: Andre Turner took over for All-American Keith Lee when he got into foul trouble, leading Memphis State over Penn. Lee played only 61 seconds of the second half before drawing his fourth foul as Penn built a lead of 31-26.

The lead changed hands 17 times before Turner helped Memphis State run off nine straight points. Turner had 16 points for Memphis State, and Perry Bromwell had 16 for Quakers, who finished 13-14

The Tigers, 28-3, play Alabama Birmingham in the second round Sunday.

WEST: Lorenzo Charles returned to the scene of his greatest triumph by scoring 22 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in N.C. State’s victory over Nevada-Reno. Charles’ last-second basket two years ago gave N.C. State the NCAA title with a victory over Houston at the University of New Mexico Arena.

The 6-7 Charles put the game away with three straight baskets, including two stuffs, to bloat a six-point lead to 12 with seven minutes to play.

Dwayne Randall and Curtis High had 14 points each for Nevada Reno, 21-10.

N.C. State, 21-9, meets Texas-El Paso in Sunday’s second round.

Luster Goodwin scored 23 points, and Dave Feitl hit two free throws with three seconds left to secure Texas-El Paso’s upset of Tulsa. UTEP, 22-9, led 77-75 when Tulsa’s David Moss missed a 10-footer that could have tied the score with four seconds left. Feitl got the rebound and was fouled, making both ends of the one-and-one.

Feitl finished with 17 points. Steve Harris had 31 points for Tulsa, 23-7.

Tulsa had battled back from an eight-point deficit in the final 1:17.