Purdue Not Saved by Bell This Time

This time, there was no reprieve for Purdue.

No. 8 seeded Georgia (21-9) parlayed the shot-blocking and scoring of senior center Terrell Bell and No. 1-seeded Purdue’s icy first-half shooting into a 76-69 victory Saturday in the second round of the West Regional.

Georgia (21-9) will play No. 4-seeded Syracuse (26-8) in the round of 16 Friday at Denver.

The 6-foot-10 Bell had 15 points, blocked seven shots and made a shambles of Purdue’s inside offense. His final block of a slam-dunk attempt by Purdue’s Justin Jennings with 1:19 left and Georgia ahead, 70-64, ended the Boilermakers’ hopes of a comeback.

Purdue, which escaped becoming the first top-seeded team in tournament history to lose to a 16th-seeded team by edging Western Carolina, 73-71, in Thursday’s first round, shot itself out of the tournament during a stretch that led to halftime.

The Boilermakers led, 24-20, with 11:31 left in the first half after making nine of their first 13 shots, then went scoreless for 6 1/2 minutes and without a field goal for more than nine minutes.

And unlike its first-round survival, when Western Carolina missed two shots in the final seconds, Purdue (26-6) got no closer than five points in the second half.

Forwards Carlos Strong and Shandon Anderson led Georgia in scoring with 17 and 15 points respectively. Chad Austin was Purdue’s top scorer with 15 points.

The victory allows Georgia’s first-year coach, Tubby Smith, to make his third consecutive appearance in the round of 16, which he guided Tulsa to the previous two years.

Purdue was eliminated in the second round for the second consecutive season. In 12 tournament appearances since 1983, the Boilermakers have made it past the second round only twice.

Syracuse 69, Drexel 58--The Orangemen’s Big East experience and a dominating front line proved too much for 12th-seeded Dragons.

Syracuse relied on its frontline of John Wallace, Otis Hill and Todd Burgan to keep the smaller Drexel players in check.

Wallace scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half, when he played with three fouls, while Hill had 16 points and eight rebounds.

Malik Rose, Drexel’s tuba-playing star center, held his own in rebounding against the taller Wallace but was limited him to five shots in the game’s first 35 minutes.

Rose finished with 11 points and 15 rebounds to move past Virginia’s Ralph Sampson into second place on the NCAA’s career rebounding list.

Jeff Myers’ three-point shot gave Drexel its last lead, 35-32, with 15:40 remaining. He led the Dragons (27-4) with 18 points.