LITTLE ROCK - Well, there go the Oregon cheer and dance teams back to Eugene. Little Rock is poorer for the loss. Mississippi State put together an outstanding second half to win this one, 76-69.
Rhodes led all scorers with 34 and Hairston had 22 for the Ducks.
. . . Jamont Gordon had nine assists for the Bulldogs, one off his career high. He laso had six turnovers.
. . . We'll be back with pre-game info for the night cap between Memphis and UTA.
LITTLE ROCK - With 1:14 left in the game, Mississippi State has the ball and a 68-63 lead.
Oregon is 1 of 16 from 3-point land in the second half, after hitting 7 of 17 in the first half. State is now 4 of 17 from beyond the arc (4 of 7) in the second half.
. . . This building will be electric on Sunday if Memphis and State meet in a border war. The teams have not met since 1984-85.
LITTLE ROCK - Oregon is struggling mightily form the field, as they have hit just 5of 21 in the second half while State is 12 of 19 in the second half. State leads 63-58 with 3: 46 left in the game.
Hairston is leading Oregon in scoring with 21, while Rhodes is trying to match McClinton's afternoon tally (38) - Rhodes has 33, a career high, surpassing the 30 he had against Auburn earlier this year.
. . . Foul trouble will be an issue down the stretch, meaning foul shooting will also come into play. Catron has already fouled out and six other players have three or more fouls on the two teams. State is 16 of 24 from the line in the game and Oregon is 12 of 14.
. . . Tajuan Porter is either shrinking as the game goes along or we're over-caffeinated. The Detroit-native is listed at 5-6, 150. He may be 5-5 in shoes and 140 with a wet parka on.
LITTLE ROCK - On the strength of a 29-16 second half run, State has taken the lead and brough tthe crowd with them as we have 7:42 left in the game and the Bulldogs leading 57-54. A monster Rhodes dunk with just under 10 minutes left in the game gave State a 53-52 lead.
Varnado has now picked up his fourth personal foul and will need to sit until after the final, under-4:00 media timeout.
A trey by Barry Stewart with 10:50 left cut the Oregon lead to three points. Stewart has six points in the game. The Dogs are now 3 of 16 from 3-point land and have connected on 3 of their last 4.
. . . Hansbrough picked up his third foul with 10:30 left in the game. Varnado picked up his third just two seconds later. Leunen has four for the Ducks (8:01 left in the game) and Catron also has four (picked up with 10:15 left). they are both on the bench.
. . . In other Hansbrough family news, UNC is up 40-plus in the final seconds of its first round game. Oklahoma and Siena also have comfortable leads, but no Hansbrough brothers.
LITTLE ROCK - The Bulldogs hit their first 3-pointer of the game with 13:10 left on a corner trey by Barry Stewart that cut the Ducks' lead to six. It was State's first make in 13 tries. With 11:44 left in the contest, Oregon clings to a 51-43 lead.
. . . Leunen picked up his third foul with 13:45 left. he hacked Varnado as he converted a lay-up. Ernie Kent decided to leave his heady senior in the game for a couple of trips up the court but then replaced him with just under 13 minutes to play.
. . . State is 6 of 10 from the field in the second half while Oregon is 1 of 8 from 3-point land (after hitting 7 of 17 in the first half).
LITTLE ROCK - The pro-Bulldog crowd is getting back into this one as they have started the half on an 8-3 run to cu the Ducks' lead to 41-36 with 15:15 left in the game. Rhodes now has 22 for State and 6 of its 8 in the half.
. . . Rhodes with back-to-back buckets to trim the Ducks' lead to 9 with 16-plus left in the half.
. . . Maarty Leunen had two fouls in the first half and only played 11 minutes but scored nine points in that limited action.
. . . Oregon's Joevan Catron picked up his third foul less than two minutes into the game. He was saddled with two in the first half and limited to 11 minutes.
. . . Alltel is filling up with a lot of Tiger blue for the second half of our double-header in le Petite Roche.
LITTLE ROCK - Charles Rhodes was 5 of 7 from the field, 6 of 8 from the free throw line, had three rebounds and an assist in a monster first half for State to kepe them in the game.
State shot 0 for 10 form 3-point land which Oregon got 21 of its 38 points (7 of 17) from beyond the arc.
Rebounds were fairly even with Oregon holding a 19-18 edge.
Oregon had 10 assists on its 14 field goals while State had 5 on its 10. Porter leads all dishers with four assists for the Ducks. Oregon also has four steals. Turnovers were 5 for Oregon and 6 for State.
LITTLE ROCK - A 3-pointer by Porter with the shot-clock expiring and the half winding down gives Oregon a 38-28 lead going into the locker room.
Charles Rhodes led all scorers with 16 points and Porter had 12 for the Ducks.
We'll be back with halftime stats after we, ah, go Peay.
LOS ANGELES -- With 30 seconds to go, Tajuan Porter was just called for a traveling violation, leaving Oregon little hope of a comeback now, trailing 72-66 and Nikola Koprivica staying steady from the free throw line.
The sophomore guard managed to tally only one point in the first half but has done his work in the second half from the free throw line and now has seven points.
After a Derrick Low free throw, the Ducks looked to be cooked even after Malik Hairston's bucket.
LOS ANGELES -- With two minutes left in this one, we got quite a game on our hands as Malik Hairston just missed the front end of a one-and-one to keep Washington State ahead, 66-61.
Tajuan Porter has picked up his third foul at the other end, and Taylor Rochestie hit both free throws to put WSU up by a seven-point lead.
But that wasn't exactly safe, as Tajuan Porter just knocked down a huge three to trim the lead back down to four with 1:23 left to play now.
LOS ANGELES -- While we've managed to keep focused on the game -- mostly that is -- we have to pay our respects to the renowned Westside Rental car, who's made a living attending college basketball games throughout the L.A. area in hopes of publicizing his moving business.
And WRM, as we'll refer to him as from now on, seems to have a different outfit for all four quarterfinal games today. Right now he's wearing a pair of red and black striped pants to go along withhblack tights and a jackal's hat while standing up and dancing to the PA music during every timeout that's been called.
According to Mr. Ahalt, WRM was present at the Big West Tournament down at the Anaheim Convention Center, and maybe if he's here for tomorrow's semifinals, we'll make a point of asking the man just how he does it. He's certainly got a laugh out of me and the other thousands in attendance here with his creative apparel and better yet, his dance moves.
So from the Posting Up perch, we'd like to say keep on dancing moving man...
Meanwhile, on the court, we have a five-point game as Oregon has just knocked down a three to cut WSU's lead to 65-59 with 4:13 remaining.
LOS ANGELES -- With about 10 minutes left in our third game of the day, Washington State is still clinging to a 10-point lead on Oregon, and the Ducks are starting to gain a little momentum due to some good defensive pressure.
After a layup by Malik Hairston, Oregon has just cut the lead to eight with 9:31 remaining and Tajuan Porter has started to find his shot from deep after canning a long one from the top of the key with a hand in his face.
LOS ANGELES -- Right before the horn sounded for halftime, Oregon got a big three from LeKendric Longmire to cut Washington State's lead to 42-27.
The Cougars have got it done from the three-point line, blazing through the nets with a 71.4-percent clip (yes, that's no joke) from beyond the arc.
Derrick Low has been the culprit in large part for the Cougars, knocking down three of his four threes to tally a game-high 11 points in 17 minutes. Backcourt mates Taylor Rochestie and Kyle Weaver each had nine and Weaver was also active passing the ball, adding five assists to his stat line.
On the glass, both teams have been pretty even so far, with WSU holding a slight 13-11 edge over Oregon, which is shooting a solid 47.6 percent from the field. But when you compare that to the Cougars' 61.5-percent mark, it doesn't nearly look as good unfortunately.
Malik Hairston is leading the Ducks in scoring at the break with nine and Bryce Taylor has remained rather quiet with four points and an assist.
In the turnover column, it's Oregon with seven while WSU has handled the ball cleanly for the first 20 minutes, committing just two TOs to its 10 assists.
LOS ANGELES -- With about five minutes to go in the first half, Washington State is cruising along with a 31-17 lead as Taylor Rochestie has led the charge with nine points.
FSN's Bill McDonald is sitting along side the Posting Up perch and needed some confirmation on his hair. I let him know that it was looking good and he had nothing to worry about when he makes his next appearance in front of the camera.
Meanwhile, Derrick Low is just raining threes, knocking down back-to-back treys from the right side of the arc, one from the wing and one from the corner, to open up WSU's lead to 34-20, and tally a team-high 11 points.
Marty Leunen and Malik Hairston each have five points for Oregon.
LOS ANGELES -- We're through 10 minutes of the first half here at Staples Center and it's been Washington State in control so far, as the Cougars are up by double digits.
The Ducks are trying to hang around right now, but offense has come sparingly for Ernie Kent's squad.
Taylor Rochestie has been the Cougars' main scorer for the moment and Derrick Low has some flashes of promise early on as well.
CINCINNATI, Ohio -- What we've seen through the first 25 minutes of this game has shown why this was the toughest ticket in town this weekend (well, there wasn't much competition for that title -- Bengals vs. Browns doesn't exactly have scalpers salivating). Both teams are flying around, putting their athleticism on display in front of this sellout crowd at Cintas Center. Xavier scored the first four points of the half to take its first lead of the game, but this one has down-to-the-wire written all over it, especially if Stanley Burrell's 3-pointer a few minutes ago gets the Xavier guard going.
