NCAA EAST REGIONAL : Stanford Makes It Personal, Defeats UNC Charlotte, 70-68

UCLA? Forget UCLA.

Also Arizona State.

Stanford’s players decided Friday that they were carrying the Pacific 10 flag into the NCAA tournament, and they waved it after Bert Lammerson’s layup with 43 seconds to play gave them a 70-68 victory over North Carolina Charlotte.

“We knew that we had to go out and show that the Pac-10 is tough,” said Cardinal guard Brevin Knight, who scored 13 points and set up the winning basket. “Arizona and Oregon played good teams and they happened to lose. But we’re going to try to keep the Pac-10 alive as long as possible.”

It also helped bring back to life 10th-seeded Stanford’s (20-8) tournament fortunes. The last time the Cardinal won an NCAA tournament game Stanford was the Indians and they were winning the 1942 national championship by beating Dartmouth.

It’s been a long 53 years.

It almost got longer.

Charlotte (19-9) led, 63-58, with 4:46 to play but scored only on DeMarco Johnson’s three-point play with 1:34 to go and on Jarvis Lang’s meaningless rebound basket just before the buzzer.

After sending the basketball down low to Lang, who finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds, all game long, the 49ers decided to launch jump shots in the closing minutes. They also decided to foul Stanford, which made 14 of 16 free throws in the second half.

After Andy Poppink hit two free throws with 1:03 to play to put Stanford up, 67-66, UNCC rushed down court and Howard threw up a quick three-point shot that missed.

Knight led Stanford back down court on a break and found Lammersen cutting in from the left side for a layup that put the Cardinal ahead, 69-66, with 43 seconds to go.

The Cardinal did not make the tournament from 1942 to 1989, losing in the first round then and in 1992.

Tulsa 68, Illinois 62--Forget Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota. And forget Illinois after the Illini’s Kiwane Garris fouled Pooh Williamson, who had just hit a three-point basket with 43.5 seconds to play.

Williamson converted the four-point play and Illinois joined four other Big Ten teams on the sidelines, knocked from the tournament. Only Purdue, a tenuous winner, remains.

Sixth-seeded Tulsa (23-7) got five three-point baskets from Shea Seals in the second half in overcoming a 12-point deficit.

Much of that Illinois lead was established by Garris, who scored 24 points--15 in the first half--but gave the game away when he missed three of four free throws in the final four minutes and threw the ball away before fouling Williamson.

It was the second year in a row that Illinois (19-12) has lost in the first round.

No. 7 Massachusetts 68, St. Peter’s 51--The first 29 minutes belonged to the 15th-seeded Peacocks. The last 11 belonged to Marcus Camby, who blocked and altered shots in helping hold St. Peter’s to two points and no field goals in that time.

St. Peter’s (19-11) led, 49-48, with 11:14 to play on a three-point shot by Mike Frensley.

“We looked at the score with 11 minutes left and said if we didn’t pick it up we were going home,” UMass forward Lou Roe said. “That’s what we should have done at the start of the game. Our defense usually propels us to get it going, but it didn’t happen until the last minutes.”

When it happened, it was impressive.

Massachusetts (27-4) got fast-break baskets that were started by Camby’s blocks, and when St. Peter’s was able to slow down the Minutemen, he was able to score on turnaround jump shots, hooks and tip-ins.

“He just literally, single-handedly, took over that game in the final minutes, offensively and defensively,” St. Peter’s coach Ted Fiore said.

Camby finished with 25 points.