NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : EAST REGIONAL : Connecticut Surges Past Boston U., 76-52

Nadav Henefeld and Chris Smith led a 21-1 second-half surge to spark No. 3 Connecticut past Boston University, 76-52, in the first round of the NCAA East Regional Thursday night at Hartford, Conn.

Connecticut, the East’s top-seeded team, had a 29-28 halftime lead but fell behind, 41-38, with 16:19 left. But the Huskies, playing 28 miles from their campus, rallied for their fifth win in a row.

“The first 25 minutes were very enjoyable for us and the last 15 were not,” Boston Coach Mike Jarvis said. “We took our little Volkswagen or Chevy as far as we could. Unfortunately we were on Route 84 (the road from Boston to Hartford) and ran out of gas.

“We were hoping to make history as the first 16 to beat No. 1, and we had our buses lined up for the getaway from Connecticut.”

Connecticut (29-5) plays California, a 65-63 winner over Indiana, in the second round Saturday at the Hartford Civic Center, where the Huskies are 8-1 this season.

Henefeld and Smith scored 19 points each for the Huskies. Steven Key had 17 points and Ron Moses 10 for Boston (18-12).

California 65, Indiana 63-- Keith Smith made two free throws with 3.8 seconds left as the Golden Bears edged the Hoosiers.

Cal (22-9) , the region’s ninth-seeded team, led 62-56 with 4:42 to play when Bryant Walton connected on his third three-point field goal of the half.

But Indiana (18-11), the East’s eighth-seeded team, then outscored California, 7-1, and tied the game, 63-63, with 13 seconds to play on a layup by Eric Anderson.

California called a timeout with six seconds left and Indiana called another before the ball was inbounded. Smith drove the lane and was fouled by Anderson, and the senior guard made both free throws.

“We had a lot of options,” said Smith, who finished with 19 points. “The first was probably getting the ball to Brian (Hendrick) on the post. My man was about five feet off me and the lane just opened up and I just drove down there trying to get the foul or the layup.”

Indiana had a final shot, but Greg Graham’s desperation heave from half-court bounced off the shot clock above the backboard at the buzzer.

La Salle 79, S. Mississippi 63--All-American Lionel Simmons scored 32 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as the Explorers won their 22nd consecutive game, but first in eight tries in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Simmons, the third-leading scorer in major-college history, took over in a decisive second-half run as La Salle (30-1) ruined the first NCAA appearance by the Golden Eagles (20-12).

Simmons has 3,189 career points, 60 behind Freeman Williams of Portland State for second place behind LSU’s Pete Maravich’s 3,667.

La Salle faces No. 17 Clemson, a 49-47 winner over BYU, in Saturday’s second round. It will be the second game against a ranked team this season for La Salle, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion. The other was its only loss, 121-116, to Loyola Marymount.

La Salle’s last victory in a first-round NCAA game came in 1955, when the Explorers went to the final game as defending champions. Since then, they lost seven times in the first round, winning only a preliminary-round game in 1983.

Clemson 49, Brigham Young 47--Kirkland Howling made a three-point shot with 31 seconds left and Marty Haws missed a layup just before the buzzer.

Clemson had a 9-0 run in the final 2:32 to beat the Cougars in the lowest scoring NCAA tournament game since the 45-second shot clock was introduced in 1986. Georgetown’s 50-49 victory over Princeton in the first round last year was the previous low.

Howling scored his only points on two three-point shots in the last 2:32, including the winning basket.

Clemson (25-8), the regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference champion, won without dominating performances from its two 6-11 starters, Elden Campbell (15 points) and Dale Davis (two points).

Trailing 47-40 with 2:42 left, Clemson outscored BYU 9-0.

Andy Toolson, who led BYU (21-9) with 15 points, missed a three-pointer with 41 seconds left. The Tigers got the rebound and worked the ball to Howling.