STEPHENVILLE, Texas (March 18) ? On to the Elite Eight!
Eric Cazenave buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 3.5 seconds left to cap a frantic comeback that vaulted Central Oklahoma past Tarleton State 77-76 in the finals of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional here Tuesday night.
The No. 21-ranked Bronchos outscored the No. 15 Texans 17-5 over the final four minutes to pull off the improbable victory and stun a capacity crowd of 2,448 at Wisdom Gym, earning their first trip to the Elite Eight since 1992 and only the second in school history.
It was the 19th win in 20 outings ? and the ninth straight -- for UCO, which improved to 28-5 while ending Tarleton's season at 25-7. The Bronchos will take on South Atlantic Regional champion Augusta State at noon March 26 in Springfield, Mass.
“These young men decided they didn't want to lose,” UCO coach Terry Evans said. “Our guys played like they had nothing to lose and we didn't. We took a lot of risks at the end and it paid off for us.
"Tarleton played good and my hat's off to them. We're excited about coming in here and winning a great basketball game and we're looking forward to going to the Elite Eight."
The Bronchos trailed 71-60 with 3:59 left, but rallied to within 75-74 on a Cazenave layup with 21 seconds remaining and fouled Jeffrey Henfield with 18.8 seconds to play. He missed the first free throw and made the second to make it 76-75 to set up UCO's last possession.
The Bronchos looked to free senior star Sam Belt for the final shoot, but he was covered up and found Cazenave open at the top of the key and the sophomore sharpshooter's high-arcing trey found nothing but net.
Tarleton quickly inbounded the ball and raced downcourt, with Marlin Cloudy getting off an off-balance 3-pointer with one second left that bounced off the back iron as the horn sounded.
“We wanted to get the ball to Sam at the end,” said Cazenave, named the tournament MVP. “He's our go-to guy, but that didn't work and when I caught it I had a good look at the basket so I put it up and it went in.”
Brian Walker came off the bench to hit 7-of-10 shots and lead the Bronchos with 16 points as UCO held a huge 48-17 advantage in bench scoring. Belt added 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds, Cazenave finished with 12 points and four assists and Michael Sosanya had 12 points.
The Bronchos led 36-35 at halftime, but TSU used a 15-2 run early in the second half to grab a 53-43 advantage with 12:22 remaining. The Texans still had a double-digit lead at 71-60 after a Eric Williams bucket with 3:59 left and that's when UCO's final surge began.
Walker started the comeback with a driving layup and both teams missed shots before Sosanya pulled the Bronchos within 74-69 at the 1:45 mark. Belt came up with a quick steal and was fouled, hitting both free throws at 1:35 to cut Tarleton's lead to 74-71.
UCO's pressure forced another turnover, with Walker getting a steal at midcourt and he was fouled on a drive to the basket with 1:09 remaining. He made one free throw to make it 74-72 and rebounded his own second-shot miss, but John Neal's 3-pointer with 42 seconds left was off the mark and TSU rebounded.
The Texans' Warren Webb was fouled at 0:38 and made the first free throw to up the lead to 75-72, with Belt rebounding his second miss to set up Cazenave's late heroics.
Both teams got off to a sluggish start and UCO trailed 9-6 early before Terry Tucker converted a three-point play to tie it, with Belt hitting two free throws 30 seconds later to put the Bronchos on top 11-9 with 14:46 left in the half.
TSU came back to take a 14-12 lead midway through the half, at which point UCO had made just 3-of-14 shots, but the Bronchos scored on nine of their next 11 possessions to seize 31-24 lead.
Sosanya had back-to-back layups off assists from Cazenave and Neal during that surge while Walker hit a 3-pointer from the wing and a 15-foot jumper, with Neal's driving layup at the 4:14 mark making it 31-24.
The Texans came back with an 11-5 run to end the half, getting a trey from Jeffrey Henfield with two seconds left to draw within 36-35 at intermission.
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