Hibbert buries Mountaineers
Georgetown wasn't about to change its game plan on a whim. After Roy Hibbert went scoreless a day earlier, nobody on the bench thought twice about getting the all-Big East center the ball Friday night.
He took care of things from there, and has the Hoyas playing for another tournament title.
Hibbert had season-highs of 25 points and 13 rebounds, and helped ninth-ranked Georgetown withstand West Virginia's only big run midway through the second half of a 72-55 victory in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York.
"I knew he was going to come out hungry, so we wanted to feed him," said Jessie Sapp, who added 13 points for the Hoyas. "We wanted to keep feeding him and feeding him. We need him in the game like that for us to win."
Georgetown (27-4) led 51-47 with just over 11 minutes left, but the Mountaineers didn't get another basket until Joe Alexander scored with 3:13 to go. By then, Hibbert and the Hoyas had a 20-point lead, and were on their way to a rematch of last year's title game with seventh-seeded Pittsburgh.
"They were 15-3 in this league, and this league is the best league in the country," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. "It's hard for us to match up with a guy like Hibbert."
Georgetown went to the perimeter in its quarterfinal victory over Villanova, matching a tournament record with 17 3-pointers. Hibbert had perhaps the worst game of his career in that one, going scoreless and managing just four rebounds before fouling out.
A different day, a much different stat line.
"I'm a monster, I'm a monster. Be afraid," Hibbert said, cracking a grin while coach John Thompson III popped him upside the head. "It's just the way our team is working and making stops. I just said, 'You know what? Just keep cranking those buckets out."'
ACC Tournament
In Charlotte, N.C., Day 2 of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament went as expected.
The four top seeds advanced to Saturday's semifinals with varying degrees of ease. And though top-ranked North Carolina and No. 7 Duke had tougher matchups than perhaps they expected, the two favorites remained on track to meet for a third time, when the stakes will be the highest of all.
The Tar Heels used 22 points from Tyler Hansbrough to move into one semifinal by beating pesky Florida State 82-70, and DeMarcus Nelson flirted with a triple-double in the Blue Devils' 82-70 quarterfinal victory against Georgia Tech. North Carolina faces fourth-seeded Virginia Tech with Duke playing third-seeded Clemson in the semis.
Virginia Tech 63, Miami 49 — A.D. Vassallo and Malcolm Delaney scored 15 points apiece and Virginia Tech continued its late-season surge by beating Miami.
Clemson 82, Boston College 48 — James Mays scored 15 points and Clemson overwhelmed Boston College with its full-court press, cruising to an easy win and its first trip to the semifinals in 10 years.Big Ten TournamentIn Indianapolis, local fans buzzed all week about a possible matchup between intrastate rivals Indiana and Purdue in the semifinals.A shocking last-second shot and a big-time individual effort in Friday's quarterfinals ended those hopes.Minnesota's Blake Hoffarber caught a long pass with 1.5 seconds left, spun away from a defender and hit a 14-foot left-handed shot at the buzzer as the Golden Gophers upset No. 22 Indiana 59-58."It almost felt like I was about to have a heart attack," Damian Johnson, who led Minnesota with 17 points, said. "My heart just dropped. I ran straight to Blake and jumped on the pile. It was very exciting."Eric Gordon scored 16 points for Indiana (25-7), which was in shock after the game."It was a crazy catch," he said. "There were three players going right after the ball. It got tipped. Hoffarber just caught it and threw it in."Minnesota (20-12) will play 10th-seeded Illinois in a semifinal Saturday. Demetri McCamey scored 26 points, and the Fighting Illini beat No. 17 Purdue 74-67 in overtime.The Gophers will try to end a 19-game losing skid against the Illini (15-18).In the other semifinal Saturday, top-seeded Wisconsin will play fourth-seeded Michigan State. Wisconsin beat Michigan 51-34, and Michigan State beat Ohio State 67-60 in the quarterfinals.McCamey, a freshman guard, made 9 of 14 field goals and all six of his 3-point shots against Purdue (24-8).Pac-10 TournamentIn Los Angeles, UCLA's Kevin Love and Stanford's Brook Lopez get to pick on players their own size when the two big men lead their teams into the title game of the Pac-10 tournament.Love, the league's player and freshman of the year, gives up 2 inches in the post to the 7-foot Lopez and his twin brother Robin.The No. 3 Bruins extended their winning streak to nine games with a 57-54 victory over crosstown rival Southern California Friday. The 11th-ranked Cardinal outlasted Washington State 75-68 in the other semifinal.That set up Saturday's third meeting between the Bruins and the Cardinal, which lost both regular-season games to UCLA.The top-seeded Bruins (30-3) want to add the tournament championship to the regular-season league title they clinched last week against the second-seeded Cardinal (26-6)."This will probably be our stiffest challenge, no question about it, all year long," said Stanford's Trent Johnson, the Pac-10 coach of the year. "We need to get off our feet and get some rebounds and make some open shots."
