THE NIT : Vanderbilt Contains Jones, Advances to Finals, 82-76

Not much of an encore by Askia Jones.

The Kansas State senior, coming off a 62-point game against Fresno State in the quarterfinals, managed only 17 points Monday night as the Wildcats lost to Vanderbilt, 82-76.

The Commodores (20-11) advanced to Wednesday night’s final against Villanova.

Billy McCaffrey scored 28 points and Ronnie McMahan 27, and each helped guard Jones.

“I’ve been challenged to guard the best off-guard on the other team all year,” McMahan said. “I just tried to crowd him, and I thought we did a good job containing him.”

Offensively, McCaffrey and McMahan freed themselves for jump shots or went around the defense to score on drives through the lane. And when they weren’t scoring, center Chris Lawson was. He finished with 14 points and combined with McCaffrey and McMahan to score 46 of Vanderbilt’s 50 points after halftime.

Villanova 66, Siena 58--Kerry Kittles scored 21 points and the Wildcats held on after taking a big early lead.

Villanova (19-12) opened a 13-point lead in the first eight minutes, taking advantage of Siena’s jitters before a partisan crowd of 16,978. It was the largest NIT crowd at Madison Square Garden since the 1981 championship game between Tulsa and Syracuse.

After Siena (24-8) cut the deficit to seven with four minutes left, Villanova scored eight of its final 10 points from the free throw line and kept the Saints at least six points behind.

Alvin Williams scored 15 for Villanova, which won for the 13th time in 16 games after starting the season 6-9.