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 for second-seeded Utah, which blew a 14-point halftime lead but recovered for an 82-77 victory over sixth-seeded Stanford in the NCAA 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 on Saturday. The Utes are in the regional finals for the first time since 1966, when they advanced to the Final Four.

"I feel like this was a terrific game and it's a shame someone had to lose it," said Utah coach Rick Majerus. "I'm very proud of my players. They played with heart. They played with composure. They hit some key foul shots down the stretch. I thought that was an unbelievable win."

Brevin Knight scored 27 points for Stanford (22-8), which erased a six-point deficit in the final 40 seconds of regulation. Knight forced overtime when he hit a leaning three-pointer from the left corner with 7.1 seconds to play.

"They're a good team," said Knight of Utah. "A couple of their key guys went out, but they kept battling. They ran their sets and their big guy (Doleac) made some shots. This is a tough loss. We came back from something like 13 or 14 points down. We gave it everything we had, but we came up short."

Van Horn was whistled for his fifth foul 34 seconds into overtime when he was called for a moving pick on Knight, who made the first of two free throws to give Stanford its only lead of the game at 68-67.

"I told them, I said look, 'You've won without me before. You can win without me now,'" said Van Horn when asked what he told his teammates after he picked up his fifth foul. "I had total confidence in them. I told them they should have confidence in themselves."

Doleac responded with a basket down low and Miller drove in for a layup to give the Utes a 71-68 lead with 3:15 left. Arthur Lee answered with a three-pointer from the right side to tie the game at 71.

Doleac and Knight traded free throws and Utah called a 20-second timeout with 2:14 left. The Utes worked the ball to Doleac, who used a spin move along the baseline to free himself for a five-footer to give Utah the lead for good at 75-73 with 1:59 to play.

"I knew that we were going to have to take care of the ball and try to get the ball underneath," said Doleac. "When the time came, we made our free throws."

After a miss by Knight, Hanno Mottola made one of two free throws with 1:19 remaining. After another Stanford miss, this one a three-pointer by Lee, Miller made one of two to give Utah a 77-73 lead with 47.9 seconds left.

Peter Sauer had a layup with 39.5 seconds left, but Miller hit two free throws. Lee missed an open three from the right side and Jeff Johnsen made the second of two free throws to make it 80-75 with 25.4 seconds left. David Moseley sank two foul shots to bring Stanford back within three, but Doleac, who was 12-of-12 from the foul line, made his last two with nine seconds left to seal the victory.

Andre Miller had a putback of his own miss to give Utah a 63-56 lead with 1:55 to play, but Stanford charged back as Kelsey Weems made a free throw and Mark Madsen added a tip-in to make it 63-59 with 1:07 to go.

A layup by Drew Hansen pushed the lead back to six with 42.9 seconds left, but Knight made two free throws less than three seconds later. David Jackson missed a pair of free throws, but Van Horn was able to tip the ball back to a teammate, but Utah threw the ball away with 31 seconds left.

Knight then drove the lane, scored and was fouled by Miller with 26.3 seconds left. He made the free throw to draw the Cardinal within 65-64. Doleac was fouled 1.1 seconds later and made both to give Utah a 67-64 lead.

Knight nearly turned the ball over when he dribbled the ball off his heel and it rolled out of bounds with 17.8 seconds left. Knight then air-balled a running 15-footer, but Van Horn couldn't corral the miss underneath, giving Stanford another chance with 10.2 seconds to go. Knight then came off a curl to the left and pump-faked once before firing a leaning three-pointer to tie the game.

Neither team established its offense in the early going and a basket by Young with just over 10 minutes to play pulled Stanford within 6-4. But Van Horn scored 10 points in a 15-5 run to open up a 21-9 bulge with 5:19 left. Utah took its largest lead of the half at 31-15 after Hanno Mottola nailed a 15-footer with 1:55 left.

A dunk by Van Horn gave Utah a 37-21 lead 2:40 into the second half, but the Cardinal finally got rolling and reeled off 10 straight points to pull within 37-31 after a layup by Peter Sauer.

Knight, who picked up two quick fouls, including his fourth with 13:05 to play, was fouled, but the Stanford bench was whistled for a technical foul. Knight made his two free throws to make it a four-point game, but Van Horn hit the two from the technical and Ben Caton made a three-pointer from the left wing to make it 42-35 with 12:40 left.

"I can't get over my disappointment," said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery. "As proud as I am of these kids, we just didn't play very well. We shot 30 percent for the game and we get into overtime. We didn't get great individual performances in a game like this. You need to play hard if you are going to get to the next game."

STANFORD (77)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Weems           40   2-8   3-5   1-2  0  1    8
Sauer           34  4-13   0-0   1-2  0  4    8
Young           28  5-15   2-2  6-15  0  5   12
Lee             40   3-9   3-4   0-2  0  5   11
Knight          39  7-19 12-13   3-6  9  4   27
Moseley          7   0-2   2-2   0-1  1  0    2
Jackson         10   0-0   0-0   1-2  0  0    0
Van Elswyk       9   0-0   2-4   0-0  0  4    2
Madsen          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, Knight
1-5). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 3 (Young
2, Madsen). Turnovers: 14 (Young 3, Lee 2, Madsen
2, 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   tp
Hansen          30   1-4   0-0   1-4  2  5    2
Van Horn        38  9-26   5-5  3-14  2  5   25
Doleac          31   2-7 12-12   3-6  1  4   16
Caton           34   1-5   0-1   0-6  2  5    3
A Miller        39  7-11   5-9   5-7  1  4   19
Jackson          8   1-1   0-2   0-0  1  1    3
Mctavish         5   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  1    0
Mottola         21   3-4   3-6   1-2  1  2    9
J 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, Doleac
0-1, Caton 1-3, Jackson 1-1, J Johnsen 0-1). Team
rebounds: 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  -   77
Utah               35   32   15  -   82
_______________________________________
Technical fouls: Stanford 1 (Bench). Officials:
Ted Hillary, Scattaglia.

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