March 22, 2003
Spokane, Wash. - Gordon scored 29 points, and Emeka Okafor added 18 points and 15 rebounds tolead the fifth-seeded Huskies to an 85-74 victory over No. 4 Stanford in theSouth Regional on Saturday.
Gordon, held to 14 points in a poor-shooting opening win over BYU, shot8-for-14 and made all nine of his free-throw attempts.
The Huskies (23-9) advance to the SouthRegional in San Antonio, where they will play the Texas-Purdue winner on Fridaynight.
Julius Barnes scored 23 points, and Justin Davis bounced back from a scoreless opener to score 21 for Stanford (24-9).
Gordon is the latest in a line of talented wing players at UConn, followingDonyell Marshall, Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton and Caron Butler, who left schoolearly after last season.
Trailing 54-51, UConn went on a 14-4 run highlighted by Robertson'salley-oop dunk off a nice feed from Gordon. Okafor scored off four offensiverebounds in the opening eight minutes of the second half for UConn.
Okafor had to go find the ball because Stanford wouldn't take it to thenation's leading shot blocker.
The Cardinal relied on their outside shooting, and the strategy worked inthe first half when they made seven 3-pointers. But they shot only 1-for-7 fromlong range in the second half.
Okafor blocked seven shots in the first round but had only one againstStanford - he rejected Josh Childress on a fast break with 6:34 to go toprotect a six-point lead.
Rashad Anderson hit a 3-pointer to give the Huskies a 72-64 lead, and afterBarnes missed a 3, Gordon came up with his most spectacular move of the game.
He took the ball inside and was blocked by Childress. He recovered the balloutside, took it back into the lane and scored on a double-pump scoop shot toput the Huskies up 10.
Barnes hit four 3s in the first half, shooting some from well behind theline. Five of Stanford's final eight baskets in the half came from behind theline as the Cardinal took a 44-40 lead.
Calhoun became frustrated by his team's perimeter defense in the first half.After Matt Lottich hit a 3 to cap a 13-4 run that gave Stanford a four-pointlead just under six minutes before halftime, Calhoun called an immediatetimeout, yelled at Gordon and sent him to the bench.
By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer