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Cornell sends Temple home, other NCAA scores

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Confident, relaxed and definitely on their game.

Cornell lived up to its billing as the best team to come out of the Ivy League in more than a decade, and now the senior-heavy Big Red have a chance for a nice run in the East Regional of the NCAA tournament.

“Everyone was saying we were Cinderella or it’s an upset. Not us,” sophomore Chris Wroblewski said Friday after the 12th-seeded Big Red dominated No. 5 seed Temple, 78-65.

Cornell (28-4) advances to face No. 4 seed Wisconsin on Sunday at 1:50 p.m. after the Badgers survived a scare in a 53-49 win over 13th-seeded Wofford on Friday.

Seniors Ryan Wittman, Louis Dale and Jeff Foote paced Cornell to its first win in five NCAA appearances.

Dale scored 21 points and Wittman, the Ivy League player of the year, had 20 for the Big Red, who led the nation in three-point shooting this season. Foot, a 7-foot center, added 16 points and seven rebounds.

Temple (29-6) lost in the first round for the third straight year under coach Fran Dunphy, whose former assistant, Steve Donahue, has led Cornell to three straight Ivy League titles and the winningest season in school history.

Cornell, which has won 16 of 17 games since a 5-point road loss at Kansas on Jan. 6, is the first Ivy League team to win an NCAA tournament game since fifth-seeded Princeton defeated No. 12 seed UNLV in 1998.

East Regional

-- (2) West Virginia 77, (15) Morgan State 50—At Buffalo, N.Y., Kevin Jones scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half to lead second-seeded West Virginia (28-6) over No. 15 seed Morgan State (27-10).

-- (10) Missouri 86, (7) Clemson 78—At Buffalo, N.Y., Kim English and Keith Ramsey each scored 20 points for Missouri (23-10).

West Regional

-- (6) Xavier 65, (11) Minnesota 54—At Milwaukee, Jordan Crawford scored 17 of his 28 points in the second half and Xavier (25-8) advanced to the second round for the fourth straight year.

Lawrence Westbrook scored 19 points for Minnesota (21-14).

-- (3) Pittsburgh 89, No. 14 Oakland 66—At Milwaukee, Jermaine Dixon and Gilbert Brown scored 17 points apiece and Pittsburgh (25-8) overcame a slow start to rout Oakland (26-9).

-- (8) Gonzaga 67, (9) Florida State 60—At Buffalo, N.Y., Matt Bouldin scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half to help the Bulldogs (27-6) beat the Seminoles (22-10).

-- (1) Syracuse 79, (16) Vermont 56—At Buffalo, N.Y., Wes Johnson had 18 points to lead five Syracuse players in double figures, and the top-seeded Orange (29-4) rolled past Vermont (25-10) and will play Gonzaga in the second round on Sunday.

South Regional

-- (4) Purdue 72, (13) Siena 64—At Spokane, Wash., Keaton Grant ignited a decisive 20-3 run with 11 points to begin the second half, and Purdue (28-5) rallied past (27-7).

JuJuan Johnson had 23 points and tied his career high with 15 rebounds for Purdue.

-- (5) Texas A&M 69, (12) Utah State 53—At Spokane, Wash., freshman Khris Middleton scored a career-high 19 points and fifth-seeded Texas A&M (24-9) advanced to the second round for the fifth consecutive year.

-- (1) Duke 73, (16) Arkansas-Pine Bluff 44—At Jacksonville, Fla., Kyle Singler had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Jon Scheyer scored 13 and Duke (30-5) rolled past Arkansas-Pine Bluff (18-16).

-- (8) California 77, (9) Louisville 62—At Jacksonville, Fla., Jerome Randle and Theo Robertson scored 21 points apiece to lead the Golden Bears (24-10), who played without suspended starting forward Omondi Amoke.

Midwest Regional

-- (10) Georgia Tech 64, (7) Florida State 59—At Milwaukee, Gani Lawal scored 14 points, Derrick Favors added 12 points and nine rebounds, and the Yellow Jackets (23-12) made 24 of 25 free throws to hold off the Cowboys (22-11).

-- (5) Michigan State 70, (12) New Mexico State 67—At Spokane, Wash., Kalin Lucas scored a career-high 25 points and Raymar Morgan emerged from a quiet night by hitting key shots down the stretch as the Spartans (25-8) held on to win.

Troy Gillenwater scored 17 points for New Mexico State (22-12).

-- (2) Ohio State 68, (15) UC Santa Barbara 51—At Milwaukee, Evan Turner scored just nine points while Jon Diebler had 23 points and Dallas Lauderdale blocked eight shots and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Buckeyes (28-7).

Orlando Johnson scored 20 points to lead UC Santa Barbara (20-10).

-- (4) Maryland 89, (11) Houston 77—At Spokane, Wash., freshman Jordan Williams set career highs with 21 points and 17 rebounds for the Terrapins (24-8).