University of Memphis Athletics
University of Memphis
Bucknell
Tigers Advance To Sweet Sixteen With Win Over Bucknell
Mar 19, 2006 | Men's Basketball
March 19, 2006
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DALLAS (AP) - Once their best player went out early with foul trouble, the Bucknell Bison didn't have a chance against the mighty Memphis Tigers.
The top-seeded Tigers took full advantage of the absence of Charles Lee, outscoring the Bison 15-2 for a cushion they rode to a 72-56 victory Sunday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Antonio Anderson scored 13 points and Joey Dorsey added 12, helping Memphis (32-3) win for the 21st time in 22 games. This one set the school record for victories in a season, topping the mark set by its 1985 Final Four team, and it sends the Tigers into the regional semifinals for the first time since '95.
Having beaten teams from the Mid-Continent Conference and now the Patriot League, the Conference USA champs next take on another upstart, 13th-seeded Bradley of the Missouri Valley Conference on Thursday in Oakland, Calif.
Bucknell (27-5) was trying to become the fourth No. 9 seed to take down a No. 1 and the first team from its brainy league to win a second-round game. The Bison became the first-ever NCAA winners from the Patriot League last year when they beat Kansas in the first round.
They advanced again Friday with a 3-pointer-powered win over Arkansas, then opened this game with a 3 in the corner by Lee, their leading scorer and the Patriot League's player of the year. He followed with a steal that he turned into a layup. Soon, Bucknell was up by six.
Then Lee got his second foul with 14:11 left and everything changed.
When he returned less than six minutes later, the Bison were down by nine. Counting baskets right before he went out and right after he returned, Memphis' game-breaking run actually was 20-2.
Bucknell seemed lost without its small forward. The Bison got off only two shots while he was on the bench, a missed 3 by his replacement and an uncontested dunk off a press-breaking, full-court pass. Seven other possessions all ended in turnovers, mostly bad passes that left coach Pat Flannery hollering things like "Why?" and "Slow down!" when players ran by the bench on defense.
Perhaps the most ominous part for Bucknell was that Rodney Carney, Memphis' season scoring leader, had been shut out until the last basket before Lee returned. It was a beauty, too, a powerful jam off a lob from Andre Allen after a steal by Allen on the other end.
The Tigers' lead peaked at 16 and was down to 10 at halftime. The lead yo-yoed from there - down to eight, up to 19, down to nine, back to 15 following 3-pointers by Anderson and Carney with the shot clock running out. It was 18 when Memphis coach John Calipari emptied his bench with 1:19 left.
Carney finished with 10 points. Four other players had at least eight points.
Chris McNaughton led Bucknell with 15 points. The Bison were 2-of-12 on 3-pointers after making 11-of-21 against the Razorbacks.
Lee, who didn't pick up his third foul until there was 2:04 left in the game, finished with 11 points and fellow senior starter Kevin Bettencourt had 12. Their departure is somewhat the end of an era for Bucknell as the senior class is the last one that entered before the school began giving out athletic scholarships. Both stopped for long hugs with Flannery when they were taken out in the closing seconds.
Bucknell, which had won 18 of 19, can take solace in having won the most games in school history. The Bison's handful of defeats included losses at Duke and Villanova.
