Mar. 20, 1997
Doleac, Utah Defeat Cardinal in NCAA Tournament West Region Semifinal, 82-77 (OT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Michael Doleac scored eight of his 16 points in overtime forsecond-seeded Utah, which blew a 14-point halftime lead butrecovered for an 82-77 victory over sixth-seeded Stanford in theNCAA Tournament West Region semifinal in San Jose, California.
Keith Van Horn scored 25 points before fouling out for Utah(29-3), which will play Kentucky in the regional final onSaturday. The Utes are in the regional finals for the firsttime since 1966, when they advanced to the Final Four.
"I feel like this was a terrific game and it's a shame someonehad to lose it," said Utah coach Rick Majerus. "I'm very proudof my players. They played with heart. They played withcomposure. They hit some key foul shots down the stretch. Ithought that was an unbelievable win."
Brevin Knight scored 27 points for Stanford (22-8), which eraseda six-point deficit in the final 40 seconds of regulation.Knight forced overtime when he hit a leaning three-pointer fromthe left corner with 7.1 seconds to play.
"They're a good team," said Knight of Utah. "A couple of theirkey guys went out, but they kept battling. They ran their setsand their big guy (Doleac) made some shots. This is a toughloss. We came back from something like 13 or 14 points down. Wegave it everything we had, but we came up short."
Van Horn was whistled for his fifth foul 34 seconds intoovertime when he was called for a moving pick on Knight, whomade the first of two free throws to give Stanford its only leadof the game at 68-67.
"I told them, I said look, 'You've won without me before. Youcan win without me now,'" said Van Horn when asked what he toldhis teammates after he picked up his fifth foul. "I had totalconfidence in them. I told them they should have confidence inthemselves."
Doleac responded with a basket down low and Miller drove in fora layup to give the Utes a 71-68 lead with 3:15 left. ArthurLee answered with a three-pointer from the right side to tie thegame at 71.
Doleac and Knight traded free throws and Utah called a 20-secondtimeout with 2:14 left. The Utes worked the ball to Doleac, whoused a spin move along the baseline to free himself for afive-footer to give Utah the lead for good at 75-73 with 1:59 toplay.
"I knew that we were going to have to take care of the ball andtry to get the ball underneath," said Doleac. "When the timecame, we made our free throws."
After a miss by Knight, Hanno Mottola made one of two freethrows with 1:19 remaining. After another Stanford miss, thisone a three-pointer by Lee, Miller made one of two to give Utaha 77-73 lead with 47.9 seconds left.
Peter Sauer had a layup with 39.5 seconds left, but Miller hittwo free throws. Lee missed an open three from the right sideand Jeff Johnsen made the second of two free throws to make it80-75 with 25.4 seconds left. David Moseley sank two foul shotsto bring Stanford back within three, but Doleac, who was12-of-12 from the foul line, made his last two with nine secondsleft to seal the victory.
Andre Miller had a putback of his own miss to give Utah a 63-56lead with 1:55 to play, but Stanford charged back as KelseyWeems made a free throw and Mark Madsen added a tip-in to makeit 63-59 with 1:07 to go.
A layup by Drew Hansen pushed the lead back to six with 42.9seconds left, but Knight made two free throws less than threeseconds later. David Jackson missed a pair of free throws, butVan Horn was able to tip the ball back to a teammate, but Utahthrew the ball away with 31 seconds left.
Knight then drove the lane, scored and was fouled by Miller with26.3 seconds left. He made the free throw to draw the Cardinalwithin 65-64. Doleac was fouled 1.1 seconds later and made bothto give Utah a 67-64 lead.
Knight nearly turned the ball over when he dribbled the ball offhis heel and it rolled out of bounds with 17.8 seconds left.Knight then air-balled a running 15-footer, but Van Horncouldn't corral the miss underneath, giving Stanford anotherchance with 10.2 seconds to go. Knight then came off a curl tothe left and pump-faked once before firing a leaningthree-pointer to tie the game.
Neither team established its offense in the early going and abasket by Young with just over 10 minutes to play pulledStanford within 6-4. But Van Horn scored 10 points in a 15-5run to open up a 21-9 bulge with 5:19 left. Utah took itslargest lead of the half at 31-15 after Hanno Mottola nailed a15-footer with 1:55 left.
A dunk by Van Horn gave Utah a 37-21 lead 2:40 into the secondhalf, but the Cardinal finally got rolling and reeled off 10straight points to pull within 37-31 after a layup by PeterSauer.
Knight, who picked up two quick fouls, including his fourth with13:05 to play, was fouled, but the Stanford bench was whistledfor a technical foul. Knight made his two free throws to makeit a four-point game, but Van Horn hit the two from thetechnical and Ben Caton made a three-pointer from the left wingto make it 42-35 with 12:40 left.
"I can't get over my disappointment," said Stanford coach MikeMontgomery. "As proud as I am of these kids, we just didn'tplay very well. We shot 30 percent for the game and we get intoovertime. We didn't get great individual performances in a gamelike this. You need to play hard if you are going to get to thenext game."
STANFORD (77) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tpWeems 40 2-8 3-5 1-2 0 1 8Sauer 34 4-13 0-0 1-2 0 4 8Young 28 5-15 2-2 6-15 0 5 12Lee 40 3-9 3-4 0-2 0 5 11Knight 39 7-19 12-13 3-6 9 4 27Moseley 7 0-2 2-2 0-1 1 0 2Jackson 10 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 0Van Elswyk 9 0-0 2-4 0-0 0 4 2Madsen 18 2-6 3-4 2-5 0 5 7_______________________________________________TOTALS 225 23-72 27-34 14-35 10 28 77_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.319, FT-.794. 3-Point Goals:4-16, .250 (Weems 1-3, Sauer 0-2, Lee 2-6, Knight1-5). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 3 (Young2, Madsen). Turnovers: 14 (Young 3, Lee 2, Madsen2, Weems 2, Knight, Sauer, Van Elswyk). Steals: 7(Lee 2, Weems 2, Knight, Sauer, Young).UTAH (82) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tpHansen 30 1-4 0-0 1-4 2 5 2Van Horn 38 9-26 5-5 3-14 2 5 25Doleac 31 2-7 12-12 3-6 1 4 16Caton 34 1-5 0-1 0-6 2 5 3A Miller 39 7-11 5-9 5-7 1 4 19Jackson 8 1-1 0-2 0-0 1 1 3Mctavish 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0Mottola 21 3-4 3-6 1-2 1 2 9J Johnsen 19 2-3 1-2 1-4 2 0 5_______________________________________________TOTALS 225 26-61 26-37 14-43 12 27 82_______________________________________________Percentages: FG-.426, FT-.703. 3-Point Goals:4-19, .211 (Hansen 0-3, Van Horn 2-10, Doleac0-1, Caton 1-3, Jackson 1-1, J Johnsen 0-1). Teamrebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 2 (Van Horn 2).Turnovers: 21 (A Miller 11, Caton 4, Van Horn 3,Mottola 2, Mctavish). Steals: 5 (A Miller,Doleac, Hansen, J Johnsen, Jackson)._______________________________________Stanford 21 46 10 - 77Utah 35 32 15 - 82_______________________________________Technical fouls: Stanford 1 (Bench). Officials:Ted Hillary, Scattaglia.