NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT / SOUTHEAST REGIONAL AT RICHMOND, VA. : Syracuse, Minnesota Weather Upset Bug--Barely : Gophers: Burton scores career-high 36 points and upstart Northern Iowa finally falls by wayside, 81-78.

Willie Burton had the best game of his college career and Minnesota needed it, though Coach Clem Haskins said it wasn’t by design.

Burton scored 36 points and carried No. 20-ranked Minnesota to an 81-78 victory over upstart Northern Iowa in the NCAA Southeast Regional Sunday.

“We like to have four or five guys in double figures,” Haskins said. “We like to have balanced scoring, and I think tonight was the first time this season we had a guy get over 20 points and we still won the game.”

Burton took over in the second half, scoring 19 of Minnesota’s 35 points.

The 6-foot-7 senior forward said it wasn’t a case of trying to violate Haskins’ philosophy of a balanced attack.

“It was just a hot hand, that’s all,” he said. “I had a hot hand, and whenever somebody’s hot, you keep going to them.”

Minnesota (22-8), the Southeast’s third-seeded team, advanced to the final 16 for the second consecutive season. The Golden Gophers face second-seeded Syracuse Friday in the regional semifinals at New Orleans.

Fourteenth-seeded Northern Iowa (23-9), which reached the second round by shocking third-seeded Missouri, had its best season since joining the Division I ranks in 1980.

“We’ve had a lot of fun,” Coach Eldon Miller said. “I told the team that I’ve never had more fun in the game of basketball than I’ve had this year.”

It wasn’t that much fun against Minnesota.

“Any time your opponent gets 15 offensive rebounds, you’re lucky to even be in the game,” Miller said. “They got too many second shots.”

Burton had 17 points in the first half as Minnesota led, 46-40, at the intermission.

He scored Minnesota’s first 11 points of the second half, and his jumper in the lane put the Gophers ahead to stay, 61-60, with 10:57 left.

Kevin Lynch followed with a three-point basket, and Minnesota stretched the lead to 71-62 at the 8:41 mark.

The Panthers cut their deficit to three points three times in the final 1:36. The second time was on Troy Mullenburg’s three-point basket with 23 seconds to play, making it 79-76.

Burton, who was fouled two seconds later, sank both free throws to push the Gophers’ lead back to five.

Northern Iowa’s 6-8 Jason Reese closed the scoring on a layup with five seconds remaining.

“A lot of people didn’t expect us to win a game in the NCAA tournament,” Reese said. “We did that, so after a few days, I’m sure we’ll look back on this as a positive achievement.”

Reese scored 29 points and had 47 points and 25 rebounds in the two tournament games. Mullenburg added 20 points for Northern Iowa, which won the Assn. of Mid-Continent Universities tournament.