Northwestern State Rallies, Stuns Iowa

Jermaine Wallace might have had the worst view of the swish seen ‘round the nation.

Stuck in the corner with time running out, all Wallace could do was heave, hope and watch.

As he fell below the baseline, his fadeaway three-pointer was good with a split second left and little Northwestern State pulled off a shocker, rallying past Iowa, 64-63, on Friday at Auburn Hills, Mich., in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“I actually saw it go in through the back of the glass,” Wallace said. “I can’t believe this.”

Neither could the third-seeded Hawkeyes (25-9).

Down by 17 with 8 1/2 minutes left, the 14th-seeded Demons from Natchitoches, La., stormed back to knock off the Big Ten tournament champions with swarming defense and clutch shooting.

Hawkeye star Greg Brunner made one of two foul shots with 14.6 seconds left for a 63-61 lead. The Demons (26-7) came down court, missed a shot and Wallace corralled the rebound.

Wallace turned and, as he was falling out of bounds, scored with five-tenths of a second left.

West Virginia 64, Southern Illinois 46 -- Kevin Pittsnogle scored 18 points, and the sixth-seeded Mountaineers made 11 three-point baskets against the 11th-seeded Salukis at Auburn Hills.

West Virginia (21-10) staggered into the tournament having lost five of its last seven games, but looked nothing like the sluggish team that was bounced by Pittsburgh in the first round of the Big East tournament last week.

Jamaal Tatum and Matt Shaw each scored 12 points for Southern Illinois (22-11), which looked completely out of place against the experienced Mountaineers, despite playing in its fifth straight tournament.

Texas 60, Pennsylvania 52 -- The second-seeded Longhorns (28-6) were supposed to have an easier time in the first round of the NCAA tournament, especially playing at Dallas with LaMarcus Aldridge and P.J. Tucker in the lineup. But the Ivy League-champion Quakers (20-9) proved to be fighters, down only a point with the ball with 5:53 left.

But Eric Osmundson then missed a three-point shot, Tucker grabbed the rebound, and Daniel Gibson drove for the first of consecutive layups -- with Brad Buckman’s blocked shot rebounded by Aldridge in between -- to put Texas up 45-40.

North Carolina State 58, California 52 -- The 10th-seeded Wolfpack ended a four-game losing streak, thanks in part to two tiebreaking baskets by Cameron Bennerman in the last three minutes at Dallas.

First, he made a tough 15-footer off the right side of the foul line, then faked a defender to get an open three-pointer with 32.3 seconds left for North Carolina State (22-9), which avenged a first-round tournament loss to the Golden Bears three years ago. California won that one on a three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left.

Bennerman scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half. He had seven during a 16-4 run that began with North Carolina State down by six.

Leon Powe had 14 points and 12 rebounds for seventh-seeded Cal (20-11).