NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : West Roundup : North Carolina State and Alabama Advance

Forward Lorenzo Charles powered in 30 points and point guard Anthony Webb added a career-high 29 Sunday to lead North Carolina State to an 86-73 victory over Texas El Paso in an NCAA West Regional second-round game at Albuquerque, N. M.

The win advances the Wolfpack (22-9) into Friday’s West Regional semifinals at Denver, where it will meet Alabama, a 63-59 winner over Virginia Commonwealth Sunday.

North Carolina State owned a 12-point lead with four minutes to play in the first half only to see the Miners (22-10) score the last nine points of the half to pull within three, 31-28.

Texas El Paso hit the first bucket of the second half to draw within one and reclaimed the ball with a chance to go in front.

But Webb stole the ball and laid it in to start a Wolfpack rush that put North Carolina State in control. Charles and Webb combined to score 13 of North Carolina State’s first 15 points of the second half.

Included in that streak was an alley-oop pass from Webb that Charles controlled with one hand and slammed home.

With Charles hitting 12-of-15 field goals on the same court where he hit the winning dunk that gave North Carolina State the national title two years ago, the Wolfpack steadily pulled away.

The Miners were led by point guard Luster Goodwin with 22 points. Center Dave Feitl scored 12.

North Carolina State becomes one of four teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference to make it to the regional semifinals, joining Georgia Tech, Maryland and North Carolina.

Alabama 63, Virginia Commonwealth 59--Bobby Lee Hurt had 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Tide won its ninth game in its last 10 starts and swept into the regional semifinals.

“Bobby Lee played a lot better than he had been playing,” Coach Wimp Sanderson said of Hurt, who shot 8 for 10 from the field. “He boarded aggressively and he shot the inside shot very well.”

Alabama (23-9), which held Arizona to 29% shooting in Friday night’s win, limited VCU to 42%, 10% under its season average.

But VCU Coach J.D. Barnett, whose team was held without a field goal in a 10-minute span midway through the game, noted that that is what happens when your offense depends on outside shooting by your guards.

“We can’t win shooting 42%,” he said. “When your best perimeter shooters have a cold day, that’s the whole story.”

Next week’s trip to Denver marks the second time Alabama has reached the round of 16. The loss by Virginia Commonwealth marked the fourth time in the past five years that the Rams have lost in the second round.

Rolando Lamb had 25 points for VCU (26-6), and Mike Schlegel had 15.

Terry Coner had 14 points and Mark Gottfried 10 for Alabama. Reserve guard Jim Farmer had eight, six of them in a five-minute second-half period that helped the Tide retain its lead.