Morgan helps lift Spartans past Owls

Michigan State will need Drew Neitzel to heat up against Pitt on Saturday.

Associated Press

DENVER — No longer a one-man show, Michigan State hopes its deeper bench will lead to a long run in this year’s NCAA tournament.

Canton McKinley High grad Raymar Morgan led a balanced scoring attack with 15 points and the Spartans beat Temple 72-61 Thursday in the first round of the South Regional despite a sudden shooting slump from spark plug Drew Neitzel.

Last year, Neitzel was the Spartans’ only option on offense. Now, he’s got scorers swarming all around. Chris Allen scored 12 points and fellow freshmen Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers each added eight for fifth-seeded Michigan State, which will face fourth-seeded Pittsburgh on Saturday at the Pepsi Center.

“There were nine or 10 guys that were responsible for this win,” Spartans coach Tom Izzo said.

Mark Tyndale scored 16 points for Temple (21-13), which was making its first trip to the NCAA tournament since losing to Michigan State in a 2001 regional final. Dionte Christmas, the Owls’ leading scorer, was limited to three points, 17 below his average, on 1-of-12 shooting.

The Spartans’ defense was so good that Temple eventually ditched its sets and let Tyndale just dart to the basket.

“They took away the 3, took away the drive,” Christmas said. “Like Coach said, we couldn’t get into no sets. We had to depend on Mark coming down, making a lot plays for us. Tom Izzo, the job he does with that program is great. That’s a great defensive team. That’s probably the toughest defensive team I played all year, all my career.”

The balanced Spartans (26-8) are making their 11th straight trip to the NCAA tournament, but they haven’t advanced out of the second round since 2005, when they lost to North Carolina in the national semifinals.

Neitzel was a freshman on that team and acknowledged this week that he thought he’d have cut down a lot more nets by now.

Neitzel, who averages 14.2 points, scored just five points on 2-of-11 shooting. He didn’t score until swishing a 3-pointer in the final minute of the first half, which ended with the Spartans ahead 35-26.

He never quit contributing, and when he went to the bench in foul trouble late in the game, the Owls cut a 19-point deficit to 10.

Neitzel’s funk came out of nowhere — he averaged 27 points in the Big 10 tournament last week.

“I’m feeling bad for him because he’s been shooting it so good, his confidence at such a high level,” Izzo said. “He’s been making all those shots.”

Marquette 74, Kentucky 66

ANAHEIM, Calif. — After first-round flameouts in their last two NCAA tournaments, the Marquette Golden Eagles vowed to stick around this time.

Jerel McNeal scored 20 points and Wesley Matthews hit eight free throws in the final 31 seconds to help the Golden Eagles survive a 35-point performance by Kentucky’s Joe Crawford, who matched a career high before fouling out. Sixth-seeded Marquette will face No. 3 seed Stanford on Saturday.

Marquette (25-9) earned its first NCAA tournament victory since 2003, when it beat Kentucky in the regional final.

Purdue 90, Baylor 79

WASHINGTON — Purdue won another first-round game in the NCAA tournament, and had a blast doing so.

Instead of resisting Baylor’s urge to play an uptempo game, the Boilermakers abandoned their usual plodding pace and ran away for the win.

The Boilermakers built a 19-point halftime lead and cruised to their 10th straight opening-round win since 1993. In the process, Purdue reached the 90-point mark for the first time in 2007-08 and made a season-high 33 field goals.

Stanford 77, Cornell 53

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Kenny Brown scored 18 points and third-seeded Stanford earned its first NCAA tournament win since 2004, routing Cornell in a matchup of players as good with the books as they are with a basketball.

Lewis Dale, the Ivy League player of the year, scored 12 points, Adam Gore had 11 and Alex Tyler 10 for 14th-seeded Cornell (22-6), which had its 16-game winning streak snapped. The Ivy League hasn’t won an NCAA tournament game since 1998.

The game’s first 10 minutes were close, with Cornell down by just three points despite starting out 3-of-15 from the field. Then Stanford took over and it got ugly fast.

The Cardinal (27-7) outscored Cornell 43-11 over both halves for a 58-23 lead. Robin Lopez and Taj Finger scored six straight each at the start of the second half, then Brown hit two 3s.

Kansas 85, Portland State 61

OMAHA, Neb. — Brandon Rush scored 18 points and everyone wearing blue had a blast, as top-seeded Kansas began its NCAA tournament with a rout of overmatched Portland.

Kansas’ five seniors and Rush, a junior star who might be headed to the NBA, are determined to go out in style after some bitter disappointments in the tournament.

The Jayhawks still remember being knocked off two straight years in the opening round, losing stunners to 14th-seeded Bucknell in 2005 and No. 13 Bradley in ’06. Last year, they were within one victory of the Final Four but lost to UCLA in the regional finals.

The Jayhawks (32-3) led all the way against the Vikings (23-10), 22-point underdogs who simply didn’t have enough weapons to cope with the size, depth and skill of a Big 12 power.

Xavier 73, Georgia 61

WASHINGTON — Derrick Brown’s 19 points and 11 rebounds led a balanced-as-usual offense, and No. 3-seeded Xavier avoided a big upset by rallying to overcome fading Georgia.

Super-sub Josh Duncan scored 20 for the Musketeers (28-6), who trailed by as many as 11 in the second half but conjured up a 22-6 run to come back. Xavier used a significant discrepancy in free throws — 27-for-33 against 3-for-5 for Georgia — and tied a school record for wins.