NCAA East at Greensboro, N.C. : Siena Spots Minnesota Big Lead, Catches Up, but Then Loses, 80-67

Minnesota Coach Clem Haskins had seen his team blow a big lead before and hold on to win. Saturday against Siena, the same scenario thrust him and the Gophers into the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. East Regional semifinals.

The Gophers got 19 points from Willie Burton and ended Siena’s dreams of being the surprise team of the tournament with an 80-67 victory at Greensboro, N.C.

“We just really lost our composure and we regained it,” Haskins said. “This game reminded me a lot of our Ohio State game at the end of the season. We had a 14-, 15-point lead, and basically the same thing happened. We were able to regain our composure down the stretch and win the basketball game.”

The Gophers (19-11) earned a berth in the regional semifinals. But they didn’t get there without a fight from the Saints, who finished the season at 25-5 after playing nine games without fans during a quarantine because of a measles outbreak on campus.

“You go through the regular season and lose four basketball games, you have to be doing a lot of things right,” Haskins said. “You don’t get lucky and win that many games. We started out with all the respect in the world for them.”

Minnesota led by 12 points six minutes into the second half, but the Saints rallied and took a 55-54 advantage when Jeff Robinson hit a three-pointer with 9:41 to play.

The lead changed hands three more times, the last on Kevin Lynch’s jumper with 8:27 left. The basket put Minnesota ahead, 58-57.

Two turnovers and two missed shots, all on consecutive possessions by Siena, opened the way for a 14-1 Minnesota rally.

“It was just a team effort after we regained our composure,” Haskins said.

Marc Brown, whose 32 points helped Siena beat Stanford in the opening round, missed all 10 of his three-point attempts Saturday. Seven of those tries were in the second half, and he finished with just nine points on four-of-20 shooting.

The Saints made 38.6% of their attempts (27 of 70) against Minnesota after hitting 53.6% (30 of 56) against Stanford.

“I told Marc several times during timeouts that even though his shot was not going down, that he was the guy who was going to have to take a lot of shots,” Siena Coach Mike Deane said. “Perhaps he got a little flustered.”

Robinson scored 23 points for Siena.

Duke 70, West Virginia 63--Danny Ferry scored 20 points, and Christian Laettner got 12 of his 14 in the second half as the Blue Devils (26-7) advanced past the second round for the fourth consecutive season.

Duke, which is 13-3 in tournament games in the last four years, made 13 of 15 free throws in the second half. Ferry, who did not make a field goal in the second half, was six of six from the line.

West Virginia, which converted only 58% of its free throws during the regular season, made four of 11 attempts, including two of six in the final 9:07. The Mountaineers finished 26-5.

“It was a defensive struggle the whole way,” Ferry said. “There was a lot of pressure on shots inside. This would have taken a lot out of us if we had to come back the day after tomorrow and play again.”

After West Virginia pulled within a point at 62-61 on a three-point shot by Herbie Brooks with 3:01 left, Laettner scored on a layup, which Ferry followed by hitting a pair of free throws with 1:58 to play. That put Duke ahead, 66-61.

The victory, No. 200 for Coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, was sealed when West Virginia’s Shaun Jackson was called for an intentional foul with nine seconds left.

Brooks led West Virginia with 13 points, and Steve Berger added 12.