COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENT: THE FIRST ROUND : SOUTHEAST REGIONAL AT ORLANDO, FLA. : Western Kentucky Out of Style, but Wins

Western Kentucky Coach Ralph Willard knows his Hilltoppers aren’t the prettiest team around, but you don’t get points for style.

Mark Bell scored six of Western’s last 10 points, including two free throws with 31 seconds left, and the Hilltoppers held off Memphis State, 55-52, Thursday night in the Southeast Regional at Orlando, Fla.

“We may not play well all the time, but there’s never a doubt we’re going to come out and fight and claw and scratch,” Willard said. “We’re not physically overpowering, but the difference in this basketball team has been their tenacity and their refusal to surrender.”

Western Kentucky plays Seton Hall in the second round Saturday.

Bell’s free throws capped an 18-point performance for the 5-foot-8 point guard and gave the seventh-seeded Hilltoppers (25-5) the lead for good after All-American Anfernee Hardaway made a running one-hander in the lane to give Memphis State a 52-51 advantage.

Hardaway, who had 17 points, was fouled on the play and made the free throw, but it was nullified by a lane violation.

Memphis State (20-12), seeded No. 10, had two chances to force overtime in the closing seconds. Hardaway missed a one-and-one free throw with 22 seconds remaining and Rodney Newsome put up an airball on a desperation three-point attempt with 1.5 seconds left.

Hardaway made only eight of 21 shots but kept Memphis State in the game by scoring eight of the Tigers’ first 10 points in the second half. He took over again with under two minutes to go, driving for a short jumper that cut Western Kentucky’s lead to 51-50.

“My game just wasn’t on at first, but it started coming on at the end when we needed it,” said Hardaway, a junior who said he will make a decision in two or three weeks on whether he will return to school for his senior season.

“The shots just weren’t falling for us. That’s what it boiled down to. They made the big shots and we didn’t.”

Tulane 55, Kansas State 53--Matt Greene’s three-point play with 52 seconds left gave the Green Wave a first-round victory over the Wildcats.

Pointer Williams, who passed to Greene for the basket, ensured the victory for the Green Wave (22-8) by stripping the ball away from Anthony Beane of Kansas State (19-11) in the final seconds.

No. 11-seeded Tulane pulled off a first-round upset for the second year in a row with its victory over the sixth-seeded Wildcats. Last year, the Green Wave defeated St. John’s before losing in the second round.

Tulane plays third-seeded Florida State on Saturday.

After Greene’s three-point play gave Tulane a 54-53 lead, Kansas State’s Vincent Jackson missed a 10-footer with 10 seconds left. LeVeldro Simmons added a free throw with five seconds left.

Florida State 82, Evansville 70--Sam Cassell and Charlie Ward took up the slack as scoring leader Bob Sura struggled, leading the Seminoles past the Purple Aces.

Evansville (23-7) often left Ward unguarded while double-covering Sura, who scored only seven points, 13 below his average.

Ward scored 15, nearly twice his average, and Cassell had 18 for Florida State (23-9), which lost three of its previous four games.

Doug Edwards added 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Rodney Dobard had 13 points and six blocked shots for the Seminoles, who scored 18 consecutive points on their way to a 41-27 halftime lead.

Florida State scored the first seven points of the second half to build a 48-27 lead before Evansville made a futile run to pull within 79-70 in the final minute on a barrage of three-pointers.