Notre Dame Reaches 20 With NIT Victory

David Graves scored 24 points and Troy Murphy added 21 as Notre Dame defeated Xavier, 76-64, Monday night in the NIT second round at South Bend, Ind., giving the Irish its first 20-win season in more than a decade.

Xavier (21-12) cut the Notre Dame lead to 64-61 on Maurice McAfee’s three-point basket with 2:09 left. But Notre Dame (20-14) made nine of 10 free throws over the final 1:19 to seal the win.

In other NIT games: Titus Ivory made the game-winning basket with 2.4 seconds to play as Penn State (17-15) recorded a 105-103 victory over Siena (24-9) at State College, Pa. . . . Kyrem Massey scored 17 points and Demetric Shaw added 12, eight in a row in a clinching second-half run, as Kent (23-7) pulled away for a 81-67 victory over Villanova (20-13) at Villanova, Pa. . . . Terrell Lyday scored 19 points as Brigham Young (22-10) had a big second half in an 82-57 rout of Southern Illinois (20-13) at Provo, Utah.

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Jimmie Hunter made the game-winning shot with four seconds remaining to lift Life (Ga.) to a 61-59 victory over Georgetown (Ky.) College at Tulsa, Okla., for its second consecutive NAIA national title. Hunter finished with a game-high 22 points for Life (34-2). Will Carlton led Georgetown (34-5) with 23 points.

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a three-time outstanding player in the NCAA tournament at UCLA, and Chamique Holdsclaw, who led Tennessee’s women to three national titles, are the Naismith college basketball players of the 20th century.

The Atlanta Tipoff Club also chose UCLA’s John Wooden and Tennessee’s Pat Summitt as Naismith men’s and women’s college coaches of the century.

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Through the first four days of the NCAA tournament, CBS averaged an overnight rating of 5.7 with a 12 share, a 6% increase over the 5.4/12 at this point last year. The 5.7/12 four-day average is the highest since a 5.9/14 in 1994.

The Los Angeles ratings for UCLA’s two games, against Ball State and Maryland, were a 5.8 and a 3.9.

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Cal State Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell has emerged as one of the leading candidates for the vacant Oregon State job. Braswell was a former assistant under Jerry Green at Oregon. Other candidates are Boston Celtic assistant Lester Conner, a former OSU player, Colorado State Coach Ritchie McKay, Milwaukee Buck assistant coach Don Newman, San Francisco Coach Philip Mathews and Arizona assistant Jay John. . . . Alabama sophomore forward Sam Haginas has quit the team, joining Schea Cotton who left last week. . . . South Carolina Coach Eddie Fogler was given a one-year contract extension following the Gamecocks’ strong finish this season. South Carolina had a 15-17 record, but won six of its last nine.