ROUNDUP : Williams, Tulane Are Just in Time

Last-second heroics in the NCAA tournament usually involve a player sinking a game-winning shot at the buzzer.

Tulane’s Pointer Williams made his mark a little differently.

Williams reached in and stripped the ball from Anthony Beane as he attempted a three-pointer with less than two seconds to play. A scramble ensued, and time ran out before Kansas State could shoot again.

Tulane’s 55-53 victory in the first round of the Southeast Regional moved the Green Wave (22-8) into the second round against Florida State, an 82-70 winner over Evansville.

“Normally, we don’t like a player to go for the ball like that because you don’t know what the referee is going to call,” Tulane Coach Perry Clark said.

Fortunately for Tulane, no call was made.

The Green Wave’s victory was the first “upset” of the tournament. Tulane is the 11th seeded team. Kansas State (19-11) was seeded sixth.

Elsewhere, St. John’s beat Texas Tech, 85-67, and Arkansas crushed Holy Cross, 94-64, in the East Regional; Kansas topped Ball State, 94-72, and Brigham Young got past Southern Methodist, 80-71, in the Midwest Regional; and Vanderbilt ousted Boise State, 92-72, in the West Regional.

In the East Regional at Winston-Salem, N.C., guard David Cain had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists and St. John’s also got 17 points from Derek Brown and 12 from Shawnelle Scott in its victory over Texas Tech. The fifth-seeded Redmen (19-10) used a 22-4 run in the second half to pull away. Twelfth-seeded Texas Tech (18-12), with no player taller than 6 feet 7, was outrebounded 51-35.

In the second game, fourth-seeded Razorbacks (21-8) used runs of 11-0 and 10-0 in the game’s first 12 1/2 minutes to grab a 29-10 lead. Holy Cross (23-7) cut the deficit to nine points early in the second half, but Arkansas then used a 15-2 run to increase its lead to 22.

In the first game of the Southeast Regional at Orlando, Fla., Charlie Ward, taking advantage of Evansville’s decision to let him shoot, scored 15 points to lead third-seeded Florida State (23-9).

“Ward really did a great job of hitting some shots. We were gambling he wasn’t going to hit those shots,” Evansville (23-7) Coach Jim Crews said.

The Purple Aces’ leading scorer, Parrish Casebier, was held to seven points, 13 below his average.

In the Midwest Regional at Rosemont, Ill., Rex Walters made all six of his three-point shots and scored 23 points as second-seeded Kansas (26-6) shot 56.3%.

Ball State (26-8) was seeking to match its tournament success of 1990 when it upset Oregon State and Louisville before a two-point loss to eventual champion Nevada Las Vegas.

In the second game at Rosemont, Brigham Young led all the way but allowed SMU to draw close several times before pulling out the victory. The Cougars (25-8) were led by Gary Trost’s 26 points. Tim Mason paced the 10th-seeded Mustangs (20-8) with 18 points. SMU shot only 36%.

In the West Regional at Salt Lake City, Billy McCaffrey--in his first NCAA tournament game since helping Duke win the 1991 national championship--scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half as Vanderbilt (27-3) advanced.