COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENT : Arkansas Is Stunned by Kansas : Southeast Regional: Jamison scores 26 points and helps stop Day in the second half as the Jayhawks advance to the Final Four with a 93-81 victory.

Kansas Coach Roy Williams was upset after watching his team fall 12 points behind Arkansas in the first half of Saturday’s NCAA Southeast Regional championship game.

“I didn’t throw any chairs in the locker room, and I didn’t curse anybody,” Williams said. “I just told them that we didn’t have to play over our heads to win. All we had to do was play the way we played all year long.”

Motivated by Williams, the Jayhawks beat No. 2 Arkansas, 93-81, before 22,717 at the Charlotte Coliseum to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1988, when Danny Manning led them to the national title.

Kansas outscored the Razorbacks, 19-7, in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second half. Arkansas, which led by as many as 14 points in the first half, committed five turnovers and missed three shots in its first eight possessions.

“I thought we won the first half and they won the second half, and that’s the half you need to win,” Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said.

“The first five minutes of the second half was the worst that we played this year. We just did not come out with the intensity that our basketball team comes out with.”

Kansas forward Alonzo Jamison limited Todd Day, who had scored 21 points in the first half, to five points in the second. Day, who made six of eight shots in the first half--including four three-point shots--missed nine of 11 shots in the second half.

“I don’t think they did anything different,” Day said. “The shots were there, but they just weren’t falling. In the first half, just about everything I threw up went in.”

Jamison credited teammates Steve Woodberry and Patrick Richey for helping him contain Day.

“We had to try to keep fresh bodies on (Day),” Jamison said. “It wasn’t just me, it was the whole team.”

Arkansas, intent on stopping the outside shooting of Kansas guard Terry Brown, left Jamison open inside. Jamison responded with a career-high 26 points, 16 in the second half.

“Jamison is a tough player,” Arkansas center Oliver Miller said. “He never gave up. He just kept taking the ball up tough to the goal. We tried everything we could to stop him, but we couldn’t.”

A 6-foot-6 junior who played at Santa Ana Valley High, Jamison was voted the MVP of the regional. He made 11 of 14 shots, including a three-pointer, and grabbed nine rebounds as Kansas outrebounded Arkansas, 41-38.

Jamison said Arkansas, which got into early foul trouble, seemed afraid to foul him, despite his making only 49.7% of his free throws during the season.

“They were scared to foul me. I don’t know why,” Jamison said. “I was giving them pump fakes and they wouldn’t go for the fake, so I just kept taking it up.”

Jamison also helped Kansas beat Arkansas’ trapping defense. After committing 10 turnovers in the first half, Kansas had only four in the second.

“I thought Alonzo was great,” Williams said. “Yesterday we worked against their halfcourt trap, and we wanted to keep Alonzo in the middle because he could look over the defense and he could also penetrate. It took some time for us to get into it, but it worked.”

While Arkansas’ offense struggled, the Razorbacks’ aggressive defense got them into early foul trouble. Arkansas committed its 10th foul 8 1/2 minutes into the second half, giving Kansas two free throws on each foul for the remainder of the game.

“The referees let us play in the first half,” Day said. “We came out in the second half anticipating that they were going to let us play the same way, and we got into foul trouble.”

But Richardson didn’t blame the officials.

“The officials didn’t beat us, but (the second half) was a different game,” Richardson said. “We’re a very aggressive team and we were trying to become much more aggressive in the second half.”

And Kansas, one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the tournament (61.9%) capitalized by making 24 of 30 free throws (80%) in the second half. Guard Adonis Jordan sank eight of 10 free throws in the second half and finished with 14 points.

Although Arkansas supposedly had a deeper bench than Kansas, the Jayhawk reserves outscored Arkansas, 24-18, and outrebounded the Razorbacks, 11-7. Kansas guard Sean Turnstall had 11 points and three rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench.

Arkansas (34-4) seemed well on its way to its second consecutive trip to the Final Four in the first half. Trailing, 29-27, Arkansas went on a 15-0 run, Day scoring seven points. The Jayhawks couldn’t do anything right, committing five turnovers and missing three shots.

But because of Jamison’s defense, Day touched the ball only twice in the first five minutes of the second half. And Arkansas couldn’t work the ball inside to Miller because Kansas used an extra defender to check him.

Richardson blamed himself for not making adjustments.

“Those kids didn’t lose the game,” Richardson said. “I lost the game. My players have never lost a game this season. They’re 34-0 and I’m 0-4.”

Kansas (26-7) will play the winner of today’s East Regional final between Temple and North Carolina in the Final Four next Saturday at Indianapolis.

Williams spent 10 seasons as an assistant to North Carolina Coach Dean Smith before coming to Kansas in 1988.

“I’ll watch tomorrow’s game with great interest,” Williams said. “Every success that Roy Williams has is because of Dean Smith. If they win, it’s good news and bad news because one of us will have to lose (in the Final Four). But I’m not going to worry about that.”