2007 NBA Mock Draft

Basketball - With Game on Line, Two Free Throws Are the Difference

A 64.4 percent free-throw shooter this season, Memphis guard Antonio Anderson stepped to the line Thursday night with 3.1 seconds left for the most important foul shots of his college career.

With more than 30,000 fans cheering wildly and his team trailing Texas A&M by 64-63 in the semifinals of the N.C.A.A. tournament?s South Regional, he took a deep breath and swished the first shot. The Aggies then called timeout in an attempt to unnerve Anderson, a sophomore who had missed three of his previous four attempts from the line and had taken fewer than 90 free throws this season.

It did not work. Anderson calmly told his teammates, ?I?m making this.? And he did.

?My whole mind-set was, I don?t want to go to overtime and I don?t want to lose this game,? Anderson said. ?All I had to do was make the free throws.?

By sinking the second free throw, he did just that, silencing a deafening pro-Texas A&M crowd and clinching a wild 65-64 victory for the second-seeded Tigers over the third-seeded Aggies at the Alamodome.

The Aggies (27-7) had a final chance to win the game, but Dominique Kirk?s 3-pointer from just inside halfcourt fell short at the buzzer.

After the game, Memphis Coach John Calipari pumped his fist and pointed to the approximately 300 fans sitting behind the Tigers? bench, as players celebrated on their way to the locker room.

?It was really a hard-fought game by two teams playing out of desperation at the end,? Calipari said. ?I?m proud of my guys. We just fought and did what we had to.?

Memphis (33-3) is now a victory away from the Final Four for the first time since 1985. Last year, the Tigers made the regional final in Oakland, Calif., before losing, 50-45, to U.C.L.A.

Memphis guard Jeremy Hunt led all scorers with 19 points and Chris Douglas-Roberts had 15. Texas A&M?s senior center, Antanas Kavaliauskas, led the Aggies with 17 points.

The Tigers next face the winner of Thursday?s late game between fifth-seeded Tennessee (24-10) and top-seeded Ohio State (32-3).

The victory extended Memphis?s winning streak to 25 games, the nation?s longest. The Tigers last lost Dec. 20 at Arizona.

?We all play with a chip on our shoulder,? Hunt, a senior guard, said when asked about critics of Memphis. ?We heard everything we can hear about how bad our conference is and that we had a cakewalk. Now, we?re winning in the N.C.A.A. tournament. We?re playing the elite of the elite and we?re still winning.?

Trailing by 5 points at the half, Memphis went on a 10-0 run to go ahead, 53-48, with 11 minutes 19 seconds left in the game.

But Texas A&M clawed back and just over two minutes later tied the score, 55-55, on a 3-pointer by the senior guard Acie Law IV.

With the score tied, 63-63, Douglas-Roberts missed the front-end of a one-and-one. At the other end, Texas A&M guard Josh Carter hit one of two free throws to give his team a 64-63 lead. Memphis turned it over on the next possession, but Law missed a driving layup with 47 seconds left.

Hunt then missed a 3-point attempt with 33 seconds left, but Memphis rebounded the ball and called timeout. The Tigers then missed three shots before Anderson grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled while shooting by Donald Sloan.

Memphis entered the tournament shooting just over 61 percent from the free-throw line, the worst of the 65 teams in the tournament.

At the half, Texas A&M led by 42-37 behind 13 points by Kavaliauskas, a native of Lithuania, despite failing to convert several prime opportunities in the first half. They trailed by 37-35 with just over two minutes left in the half, but then went on a 7-0 run heading into the locker room.

Early on, the teams traded leads several times. But trailing by a point, Memphis went on a 5-0 spurt to go ahead, 23-19, on two free throws by Douglas-Roberts with 9:52 left in the first half. The lead was the largest of the game to that point.

Showing no ill effects of a sprained left ankle he sustained in a victory over Nevada in New Orleans on Sunday, Douglas-Roberts, a sophomore guard from Detroit who is Memphis?s leading scorer, excelled in the game?s first 11 minutes. Wearing a brace, he scored all 11 of his first-half points during that span, including a gliding baseline dunk and an alley-oop slam.

Before the game, Calipari had said he was unsure if Douglas-Roberts, who entered the game averaging 15.4 points, would play. He was on the court for 37 minutes and finished 5 for 8 from the field.

After Douglas-Roberts?s free throws, Texas A&M responded with a 10-1 run keyed by Kavaliauskas to go ahead, 29-24, with 7:31 left in the first half.

Kavaliauskas, who entered the game averaging 11.8 points and 6.2 rebounds, scored 5 of those points and grabbed two rebounds. He completed a 3-point play after being knock to the floor while making a baseline jumper with 8:24 left.

Entering the game, Texas A&M was ranked second nationally in field-goal defense at 37.3 percent and had allowed an average of fewer than 60 points a game.

Frustrated by five fouls called against his team in just over the game?s opening minutes, Texas A&M Coach Billy Gillispie received a technical foul with the score tied, 6-6.

He expressed that same exasperation after the game, especially about giving four offensive rebounds to Memphis in the game?s final minute.

?You pride yourself on defense and you pride yourself on finishing your defensive positions with defensive rebounds, and we just didn?t get it done,? Gillispie said. ?That makes it a little bit more frustrating to lose.?

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