NIT Roundup : Hoosiers Blab Oust Richmond

Uwe Blab, Indiana’s 7-foot 2-inch center, scored 17 points as the Hoosiers defeated Richmond, 75-53, Tuesday night at Bloomington, Ind., in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament.

Blab hit 7 of 9 shots from the field--several on alley-oop dunks over the shorter opposition--took down 13 rebounds and blocked 3 shots.

“It’s obviously a lot of fun when it works,” Blab said of his dunks. “But it’s also as much fun for the guy passing the ball. In my opinion, the passer does 80% of the work.”

Indiana outrebounded Richmond, 39-25.

“When we get our center rebounding, it’s a very big plus for us,” said Indiana assistant coach Jim Crews, speaking in place of Coach Bob Knight. Knight has refused to answer reporters’ postgame questions since early in the season.

Steve Alford added 14 points and Dan Dakich and Stew Robinson finished with 12 apiece for the Hoosiers.

The smaller Spiders trailed by nine points at halftime and closed within seven in the second half before a 12-3 spurt by Indiana put the game out of reach.

Richmond was led by guard Kelvin Johnson, who had 10 of his 15 points in the first half, and by forward John Newman, whose 13 points marked the end of a string of 12 straight games in which he had scored 20 or more points.

Indiana (17-13) will play its third-round game Saturday against an opponent to be named after tonight’s three second-round games. Richmond, which lost a second-round game to Indiana in last year’s NCAA tournament, ended its season at 21-11.

The NIT’s second-round games tonight are South Florida at Louisville, Southwestern Louisiana at Tennessee and Tennessee Chattanooga at Lamar. Following Saturday’s third round, the semifinals and final will be March 27 and March 29 at New York.

Marquette 56, Cincinnati 54--Tony Reeder and Michael Sims each hit a free throw in the final 33 seconds to give Marquette a victory at Cincinnati.

The Bearcats (17-14) made only 14 of 49 field-goal attempts (28%), and only one in the final 12 minutes.

Marquette (20-10) hit 25 of 57 (53%).

Cincinnati led, 44-37, with 10:38 remaining, but Marquette outscored the Bearcats, 9-0, during the next six minutes go in front, 46-44.

“I think we missed the front end of nine one-and-ones, but we played pretty good when we had to and we made the baskets when we had to,” Coach Rick Majerus said.

Virginia 68, St. Joseph’s 61--Olden Polynice scored 15 points to lead the Cavaliers (17-15) at Charlottesville, Va. Jim Miller added 14 and Tim Mullen 12.

St. Joseph’s (19-12) got a game-high 21 points from Bob Lojewski, although the Hawks’ senior forward was held scoreless over the last six minutes of the game. Maurice Martin contributed 15 points for St. Joseph’s.

Virginia, extending its home win streak against non-Atlantic Coast Conference teams to 43, trailed by three, 39-36, with just under 16 minutes to play.

But the Cavaliers, who won the NIT in 1980, outscored the Hawks, 10-2, over the next three minutes to take a 46-41 lead with 12:34 remaining.

Fresno State 66, New Mexico 55--Scott Barnes scored 19 points and Mitch Arnold added 16 as the Bulldogs (23-8) won at Fresno. They are likely to play UCLA Saturday in the third round.

New Mexico finished its season at 19-13.