NCAA Game Summary - Bradley vs. Memphis
03.23.2006
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Oakland, CA (Basketball News) - Rodney Carney poured in 21 points to lead Memphis to an easy 80-64 win over Bradley in the Oakland Regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
Darius Washington added 18 points for top-seeded Memphis (33-3), who posted a 94-78 triumph over 16th-seeded Oral Roberts in the first round, before taking down ninth-seeded Bucknell, 72-56, in second-round action. Shawne Williams chipped in with 12 points while Antonio Anderson had 10 in the win.
The Tigers have now won 22 of their last 23 games en route to a school-record 33 victories on the season.
Memphis will now face the winner of the Gonzaga - UCLA tilt in the regional final on Saturday.
Marcellus Sommerville netted 18 points for the 13th-seeded Braves (22-11), who hadn’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996 and hadn’t won a game in the tourney since 1986 before pulling off two of the biggest upsets in this year’s event.
Bradley, the lowest seed remaining in the overall tourney, opened with a shocking 77-73 victory over fourth-seeded Kansas before knocking off fifth- seeded Pittsburgh, 72-66, in the second round.
Lawrence Wright added 14 points in the loss.
The Braves were trying to continue their magical run but Memphis just had too much talent.
The Tigers used a 13-2 run that started in the final moments of the first half and continued at the outset of the second stanza to gain control of the game.
Memphis finished the opening half with a 6-1 burst, fueled by an Anderson three-pointer, to take a 35-30 edge into intermission.
The Tigers continued to pull away by scoring seven of the first eight points in the second half. Carney capped the flurry with a triple and Memphis took its first double-digit cushion, 42-31, less than two minutes into the stanza.
From there, Memphis continued to pull away. Washington’s driving layup with around 11 1/2 minutes left extended the advantage to 14, 59-45.
Another Anderson triple, with 7:57 left, gave the Tigers a 17-point edge, 67-50.
Bradley was unable to generate a run in the closing moments as Memphis cruised toward the victory.
The Tigers came out of the blocks flexing their muscles and scored the first seven points of the game. After Williams opened the contest with a driving layup, Washington followed with a lay-in of his own and then canned a three- pointer to make the score 7-0 with less than four minutes gone.
Bradley finally calmed down and answered by embarking on a 13-4 run to take its first lead. Tony Bennett’s leaning jump shot capped the spurt and made it 13-11 with a little over 12 minutes left in the half.
The two teams continued to trade buckets and found themselves deadlocked at 29 entering the waning moments of the frame.
