Cardinal Edges Wake Forest and Tim Duncan, 72-66

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Peter Sauer hit consecutive jumpers and Arthur Lee added a key tip-in in the final two minutes as sixth-seeded Stanford edged third-seeded Wake Forest and ended the college career of Tim Duncan, 72-66, in a second-round West Region matchup at Tucson, Arizona.

Sauer hit a turnaround jumper with 1:46 to play and added another hoop with 70 seconds remaining as Stanford (22-7) clung to a five-point lead. The Demon Deacons drew within 66-62 with just over a minute to play when the six-foot Lee tapped home a missed jumper by Sauer.

The Cardinal, who have won six straight games, advance to face regional two-seed Utah on Thursday. The Cardinal move on to the regional semifinals for the first time since 1942, when they won their only NCAA Tournament.

Duncan, the consesus choice for player of the year honors finished with 18 points and 20 rebounds but had just a bucket and two free throws in the second half.

Wake Forest finished 24-7.

Lee finished with 14 points as did Kris Weems, who made 5-of-8 shots. Brevin Knight had 19 points, five assists and made a pair of key free throws with 20.5 seconds to play.

Stanford starting center Tim Young scored just four points but did a solid job of neutralizig Duncan, especially in the second half.

Duncan was 5-of-11 from the field and 8-of-11 from the free throw line but committed six turnovers. He never got into the offense in the second half and flew out to defend Sauer, vacating the key and enabling Lee to tip-in the pivotal basket.

"This (senior) class has been a part of some exciting times at Wake Forest," said Wake Forest coach Dave Odom. "They've taken us places we've never been and done things we've never done. These guys have always done it with the highest of dignity and the highest of class, great grace, tremendous commitment, not only to our team, but to our university. They've been a credit to all of college basketball."

The game featured 44 fouls and Young and Wake's Ricky Peral fouled out in the final four minutes.

"I took Tim Young out with two (fouls)," said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery when asked about the physical play. "Wake Forest was starting to complain, and rightly so, about the contact. I anticipated then that the officials might be a little more cognizant of maybe calling a third, so I took him out. "My concern was the second half. "Duncan is so good that I was concerned that if we had people with three fouls in the second half, that we would run out of gas and they would just go to him and he would score every time, so I was trying to save my big people."

STANFORD (72)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Weems           38   5-8   2-2   0-4  2  0   13
Sauer           33  5-12   4-5   1-7  2  1   14
Young           14   1-4   2-4   0-1  1  5    4
Lee             35  5-10   3-5   2-3  4  1   14
Knight          39  5-11   8-8   0-2  5  4   19
Moseley          8   0-1   0-0   0-3  1  1    0
Van Elswyk      10   1-2   0-0   1-3  0  4    2
Seaton           6   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  1    0
Madsen          17   1-2   4-6   2-5  0  3    6
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 23-50 23-30  6-28 15 20   72
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.460, FT-.767. 3-Point Goals:
3-8, .375 (Weems 1-1, Sauer 0-1, Lee 1-2, Knight
1-3, Moseley 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked
shots: 1 (Moseley). Turnovers: 10 (Lee 3, Van
Elswyk 2, Young 2, Knight, Sauer, Weems). Steals:
8 (Knight 4, Sauer 2, Lee, Van Elswyk).
WAKE FOREST (66)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Allen           15   0-1   1-2   0-1  0  4    1
Peral           27   6-8   0-1   1-2  1  5   12
Duncan          40  5-11  8-11  6-20  2  4   18
Braswell        38  5-12   0-1   0-1  5  4   13
Rutland         37  5-14   3-3   0-0  2  4   16
Goolsby         15   0-1   0-0   0-1  0  1    0
Amonett         18   1-3   0-0   0-1  3  2    2
Woods           10   2-3   0-0   0-2  0  0    4
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 24-53 12-18  7-28 13 24   66
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Percentages: FG-.453, FT-.667. 3-Point Goals:
6-19, .316 (Peral 0-1, Duncan 0-1, Braswell 3-4,
Rutland 3-11, Goolsby 0-1, Amonett 0-1). Team
rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 3 (Duncan 3).
Turnovers: 16 (Duncan 6, Peral 3, Braswell 2,
Rutland 2, Allen, Amonett, Woods). Steals: 3
(Duncan 2, Amonett).
__________________________________
Stanford           25   47  -   72
Wake Forest        19   47  -   66
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None.  A: 11,916. Officials: Tom
Oneil, Jodi Silvester, Rt Day.

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