College Basketball / NCAA POSTSEASON TOURNAMENTS : WEST REGIONAL / AT SACRAMENTO : Olson Makes Certain Arizona Is Able to Play Another Day

Maybe it was overkill, but when you’ve been embarrassed two years in a row, the memory lingers and a reputation is earned. Radio talk shows make sure of that.

Arizona lost to East Tennessee State in the first round of the NCAA tournament as a third-seeded team in 1992 and to Santa Clara while second-seeded in 1993.

So when 15th-seeded Loyola of Maryland was being blown out by second-seeded Arizona in the closing minutes Friday at Sacramento, the Greyhounds still looked like Duke to Wildcat Coach Lute Olson.

He kept three starters in until 1:40 remained in an 81-55 victory.

“In the past we lost in the first round, and I didn’t want it to happen again,” said Khalid Reeves, a senior who led the Wildcats with 32 points and spoke Olson’s mind. “Now we have a game to play on Sunday. We can’t relax.”

That game is against Virginia, a 57-54 winner over New Mexico.

Loyola (17-13) is a 3,000-student school in Baltimore that was making its first trip to the NCAA tournament. It was so financially strapped that it rented Virginia’s band rather than fly its own across country.

No matter. Remember East Tennessee and Santa Clara?

Olson does, so he took no chances, having the Wildcats (26-5) press from the opening moments. Loyola scored the first basket, then few others as Arizona gained a 39-22 halftime lead.

Actually, the press might have been too much. Loyola still failed to score for 6 minutes 10 seconds after the Wildcats abandoned it.

The Greyhounds, who shot only 24%, were led by Tracy Bergan’s 17 points. Their first basket of the second half didn’t come until the 15:50 mark, when Milton Williams made a three-pointer to make it 49-25.

The victory left the Wildcats as the only surviving Pacific 10 team in the postseason.

Virginia 57, New Mexico 54--Jason Williford’s offensive rebound and basket with 46 seconds to play gave the Cavaliers their first lead of the second half. It was only his second basket of the game.

Harold Deane added two free throws to ice the victory for Virginia (18-12) of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The larger and heavier Cavaliers wore down a fast and scrappy New Mexico (23-8) team that held second-half leads as big as 15 points.

New Mexico of the Western Athletic Conference made only six of 25 three-point shots.

Louisville 67, Boise State 58--Clifford Rozier’s 18 points helped the third-seeded Cardinals hold off an impressive second-half rally by 14th-seeded Boise State.

The Broncos (17-13) used six three-pointers in the second half to storm back from a 49-27 deficit. An 11-0 run got Boise rolling.

Two three-pointers by Shambric Williams cut the margin to 60-55, and his three-point play made it 62-58 with 29 seconds to go before the Boise drive stalled.

Louisville (27-5) will meet Minnesota in Sunday’s second round.

Minnesota 74, Southern Illinois 60--Voshon Lenard scored 18 points, Arriel McDonald 15 and the sixth-seeded Golden Gophers (21-11) went on a 20-0 run in the first half in beating the Salukis.

The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak for 11th-seeded Southern Illinois (23-7).

Chris Lowery led the error-prone Salukis with 19 points.