COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Longshot Pays Off for Seton Hall in Victory

Everyone who could shoot was covered, so Seton Hall got the ball and its season to someone who can’t shoot.

John Leahy is the first to admit that he might not be the best last-shot option for the Pirates, but they had no other option with 4.1 seconds to play in overtime Friday in New York.

Leahy took a pass from Arturas Karnishovas and hit his only three-pointer in the game to give Seton Hall an 81-80 victory over 13th-ranked Syracuse in the quarterfinal round of the Big East tournament.

“Arturas passed the ball to me, and there was no one there so I let it go,” Leahy said.

There was no one there because Karnishovas had drawn all the attention, as befits a player who had already scored 23 points.

The again, maybe Karnishovas paid attention in math class.

“I’m shooting 25% on three-pointers,” Leahy said. “I missed my first three. I made the last one. The law of averages was with me.”

The victory moved the Pirates (17-11) into today’s semifinals against Georgetown, an 81-58 winner over Boston College.

Syracuse (21-6) got 30 points from Lawrence Moten.

No. 2 Connecticut 97, St. John’s 77--Donyell Marshall set a tournament record with 42 points for the Huskies (27-3), who capped the Redmen’s (12-17) first losing season since 1962-63.

Providence 77, Villanova 66--Michael Smith hit his first 10 shots and went over 1,000 rebounds for his career with the Friars (18-9), who beat the Wildcats (15-12) and advanced to a semifinal game against Connecticut.

Georgetown 81, Boston College 58--Othella Harrington scored 21 points as the Hoyas (17-10) used a 32-7 run to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive and beat the Eagles (20-10).

ACC TOURNAMENT

No. 4 North Carolina 83, Florida State 69--Freshman Jerry Stackhouse scored 19 points and classmate Rasheed Wallace had 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Tar Heels (25-6) against the Seminoles (13-14) at Charlotte, N.C.

No. 5 Duke 77, Clemson 64--Cherokee Parks blocked a school-record 10 shots and had 10 rebounds, and Grant Hill scored 23 points for the Blue Devils (23-4), who finished Coach Cliff Ellis’ ACC career at Clemson (16-15).

Wake Forest 74, Georgia Tech 49--Randolph Childress’ sore shoulder and bruised knee were forgotten when he scored 19 points in helping the Demon Deacons (20-10) break their seven-game ACC tournament losing streak with a victory over Georgia Tech (16-12).

Virginia 69, Maryland 63--Harold Deane scored 10 of his career-high 22 points during a two-minute stretch of the second half as the Cavaliers (16-11) held off Maryland (16-11) and advanced to a semifinal game against Duke.

SEC TOURNAMENT

No. 1 Arkansas 95, Georgia 83--Corliss Williamson scored 11 of his career-high 30 points in the final 6:12 for the Razorbacks (25-2) in their victory over the Bulldogs (14-16) at Memphis, Tenn.

No. 10 Kentucky 95, Mississippi State 76--Tony Delk hit five of the Wildcats’ 12 three-pointers and scored 29 points to lead Kentucky (24-6) past the Bulldogs (18-10) and set up a rematch of last year’s semifinal between the Wildcats and Arkansas.

No. 17 Florida 84, South Carolina 57--Long-distance shooters Craig Brown scored 17 points and Dan Cross 14 for the Gators (24-6) against the Gamecocks (9-19).

Alabama 83, Auburn 55--Marvin Orange hit six three-pointers and finished with 21 points as the Crimson Tide (19-8) advanced to a semifinal game against Florida by beating Auburn (11-17) for the 17th time in the last 20 games.

BIG EIGHT TOURNAMENT

No. 3 Missouri 64, Colorado 62--Paul O’Liney’s two free throws with three-tenths of a second left enabled the regular-season champion Tigers (25-2) to escape against the last-place Buffaloes (10-16) at Kansas City.

No. 11 Kansas 73, Kansas State 52--Greg Gurley scored 16 points and the Jayhawks (25-6) went on a 19-4 run in the final 10 minutes of the first half to take control and beat the Wildcats (17-12) to advance to a semifinal game against Oklahoma State.

No. 23 Oklahoma State 77, Iowa State 67--Bryant Reeves scored 21 points as the Cowboys (22-8) built a first-half lead and then weathered a second-half rally by the Cyclones (14-13).

Nebraska 105, Oklahoma 88--Eric Piatkowski scored a tournament-record 42 points to lead the Cornhuskers (20-9) past the Sooners (15-12) and into a semifinal game against Missouri.

GREAT MIDWEST TOURNAMENT

Memphis State 73, No. 21 St. Louis 62--The Tigers (13-15) got 22 points from David Vaughn and finished the game with a 16-6 run in beating the Billikens (23-5) at Cincinnati. Memphis State is in the finals for the fourth consecutive year, but cannot advance to the NCAA tournament because the league does not have an automatic bid.

Cincinnati 72, No. 19 Marquette 63--Damon Flint, who had bragged that the Bearcats were better than Marquette, backed it up with 21 points in leading Cincinnati (21-9) over the Warriors (22-8).

SOUTHWEST TOURNAMENT

No. 25 Texas 101, Rice 89--Albert Burditt scored 24 points and Terrence Rencher 21 at Dallas as the Longhorns (24-7) beat Rice (15-14), give Coach Tom Penders his 400th collegiate victory and set up a tournament final game against Texas A&M.;

Texas A&M; 89, Texas Tech 85--David Edwards scored points to help the Aggies (19-9) beat the Red Raiders (17-11).

WAC TOURNAMENT

Brigham Young 87, Fresno State 72--Russell Larson had 21 points as the Cougars (21-8) rode a hot-shooting second half past the Bulldogs (19-10) to advance to tonight’s championship game against Hawaii at Salt Lake City.

Hawaii 61, New Mexico 58--The Rainbows (17-14) got 23 points from Trevor Ruffin, including a game-winning three-pointer, in shocking the top-seeded Lobos (23-7).

OTHER GAMES

T.J. Hall scored 21 points and Navy (17-12) earned its first NCAA tournament bid since the David Robinson years with a 78-76 victory over Colgate (17-12) in the Patriot League final at Annapolis, Md.

Field Passes

A look at the teams that have secured automatic berths in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The field of 64 teams will be announced Sunday.

Team Conference Central Florida Trans America AC Drexel North Atlantic James Madison Colonial Liberty Big South Loyola Maryland Metro Atlantic Massachusetts Atlantic 10 Navy Patriot Pennsylvania Ivy Pepperdine West Coast Rider Northeast Southern Illinois Missouri Valley Southwest Texas St. Southland Southwest Louisiana Sun Belt Tennessee Chattanooga Southern Tennessee St. Ohio Valley Wisconsin Green Bay Mid-Continent