Concordia wins in four overtimes
Levi Luster scored the go-ahead basket with a minute left in the fourth overtime, and Concordia of Irvine ousted top-seeded and previously unbeaten Robert Morris of Illinois, 124-119, on Monday night in the semifinals of the NAIA tournament in Kansas City, Mo.
Keith Lawrence, whose off-balance three-point shot at the buzzer forced the fourth overtime, made a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left that gave Concordia (31-6) a 122-119 lead in the second-longest game in the 70-year history of this small-college championship.
Luster finished with 29 points.
Concordia’s Terrence Worthy forced the second overtime with a long three-point shot with 1.5 seconds left that made it 88-88. He then made the third overtime necessary when he drove the lane for a short runner that tied it at 98-98 at the buzzer.
Bidding to be the first unbeaten team to win the title since 1992, Robert Morris (32-1) trailed 76-65 at the 3:27 mark in regulation right after its best player, Taylor Freeman, fouled out with 16 points and 18 rebounds.
But the Eagles outscored Concordia, 14-3, the rest of the way and Anton Palmer’s contested layup with 14 seconds left forged a 79-79 tie and sent the game into its first overtime.
Concordia plays Oklahoma City today for the championship. Oklahoma City beat Faulkner of Alabama, 76-61.
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Top-ranked Vanguard of Costa Mesa lost its first game of the season, a 68-64 decision to Cumberland of Tennessee in the semifinals of the women’s NAIA tournament in Jackson, Tenn.
Vanguard (31-1) got 22 points and 13 rebounds from Kelly Schmidt, but lost in the semifinals for the second year in a row. Cumberland improved to 27-7.
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Stanford center Brook Lopez will remain in school for his sophomore season rather than make himself available for the NBA draft. The 7-foot Lopez, whose twin Robin also plays for the Cardinal, averaged 12.6 points and 6.0 rebounds.
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Coby Karl, who recently finished his career as the third-leading scorer in Boise State history, will undergo surgery to treat cancer next month.
The school announced that Karl, the son of Denver Nuggets Coach George Karl, would have cancerous lymph nodes removed April 2. It will be the second surgery in 13 months for Karl, who had his thyroid removed last March after being diagnosed with papillary carcinoma, a form of treatable cancer.
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Former Mississippi coach Rod Barnes was hired as the coach at Georgia State, which fired Michael Perry after the team was eliminated from the Colonial Athletic Assn. tournament. Barnes, 41, was an assistant at Oklahoma this season. He was the 2001 Naismith national coach of the year after leading Mississippi to a school-record 27 wins and the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.
But after earning NCAA bids in three of his first four years at the school, Barnes was fired in 2006 following four straight losing seasons.
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Ricardo Patton was hired as coach at Northern Illinois. The former Colorado coach replaces Rob Judson, who was fired earlier this month after his team finished the season with a 7-23 record.
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CBS is averaging a 5.8 overnight Nielsen rating and a 13 share of the audience through the first four days of the NCAA tournament, the network announced. The average at this point last year was a 5.6/12.
The 5.8/13 is the second best-average since 2002. The only higher average since then was a 5.9/12 in 2005.
In Los Angeles, the average this year is a 3.0/8, down from a 3.6/9 last year.
The highest-rated game in L.A. so far was UCLA’s victory over Indiana on Saturday, which got a 5.8/13. USC’s victory over Texas on Sunday drew a 4.6/12.
First-round L.A. ratings included a 2.9/7 for UCLA-Weber State on Thursday and a 3.7/7 for USC-Arkansas on Friday.
Larry Stewart
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Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis’ leading scorer, did not practice because of a sprained left ankle suffered Sunday in the Tigers’ 78-62 win over Nevada. Memphis plays Texas A&M; on Thursday in San Antonio in a South Regional semifinal.
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Demetris Nichols had 20 points, Andy Rautins scored 15 and Syracuse beat San Diego State, 80-64, in the second round of the NIT before a tournament-record crowd of 26,572 in Syracuse, N.Y. The Orange improved to 24-10 while San Diego State, which got 16 points from Lorrenzo Wade, finished 22-11.